
Class Al^Vi^ 



B5A.^E^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 






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LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 



SAMUEL JOHNSON, D. D. 



LIFE AND COIiUESPONDENCE 



SAMUEL JOHNSON, D. D 



MISSIONARY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CONNECTICUT, 

AND FIRST PRESIDENT OF KING'S COLLEGE, 

NEW YORK. 



E: EDWARDS BEARDSLEY, D. D., 

KECTOK OF ST. THOJIAS'S CHUKCII, NEW HAVEN. 



..,;- bo.PYR!-:... 
!^ , I'd? 3 . W 



NEW YORK: 

PUBLISHED BY HURD AND HOUGHTON. 

Conbon: Hioincjtons. 

1874. 



UH 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the 3''ear 1873, by 

E. Edwards Beardsley, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: 

STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY 

H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. 



PREFACE. 



The materials for a volume of this kind are rarely 
accessible after the lapse of a century. Letters and 
papers of historic value are so often scattered and de- 
stroyed, that unless the biographer attends to his task 
in season, he may find it difficult to gather the infor- 
mation that he needs for writing with fullness and 
satisfaction. " If a life," said Dr. Johnson, the great 
name which is the pride and glory of English liter- 
i'ji'e. " be delayed till interest and envy are at an 
end, we may hope for impartiality, but must expect 
little intelligence." 

Though this work is published one hundred years 
after the death of its distinguished subject, yet I trust 
it will be found that' besides being impartial, I have 
escaped the caustic criticism of giving " little intelli- 
gence." In writing the History of the Church in 
Connecticut, I fell upon original sources of informa- 
tion, which seemed never to have been carefully ex- 
plored. Chandler's " Life of Johnson," brief and un- 
satisfactory as it may be, was very well for the day in 
which it appeared, and I should not have attempted 
an ampler biography, if I had not felt that it was now 



Vi PREFACE. 

due to the memory of one of the most important names 
in American history. 

The Johnson MSS., not a tithe of which could 
have passed under the inspection of- Chandler, have 
all been kindly placed in my hands, and unless I had 
been familiar with them by previous acquaintance, 
the preparation of this work would have been much 
more laborious, and its publication longer delayed. 
As it is, the hours of leisure during a period of three 
years, if the busy Eector of a city parish may be sup- 
posed to have any leisure, have been devoted to it, 
and nothing has been overlooked which was calcu- 
lated to shed any new light upon the character of 
Johnson, and the times in which he lived. 

By introducing large portions of his correspondence 
with eminent men in this country, and with Bishops 
and leading minds in the Church of England, I have 
made him in a measure his own biographer, and at 
the same time rescued from oblivion faded manuscripts 
which the accidents of another generation might have 
put quite beyond our reach. One gets a better idea of 
a man from seeing him in his letters and writings than 
from the estimates of those who weigh him in their 
own scales, and describe him in their own language. 

It was a remark of Bishop Jebb that " the lives of 
good men are an invaluable portion of a clergyman's 
library ; " but it is to be hoped that these pages will 
not be limited to readers of this class. All who are 
interested in Yale College, its early struggles and 



PREFACE. vii 

first endowments, the gifts of Berkeley and the influ- 
ence of his Philosophy, all who would know anything 
of the origin of King's (now Columbia) College, New 
York, and of the progress of liberal education in this 
country, and all who would thoroughly understand 
the "efforts to secure the American Episcopate, the 
strange opposition to it, and the movements which 
led to the Revolution and the Independence of the 
Colonies, will find many fresh historical facts in this 
volume, and wonder why they were not before given 
to the public. 

The engraving which forms the frontispiece is made 
from a portrait in the possession of his great grand- 
son, Mr. William Samuel Johnson of Stratford. The 
painting, though there is nothing but a tradition in 
the family to support the statement, is without doubt 
from the pencil of Smibert, the artist who accompa- 
nied Dean Berkeley to America, and remained in 
Boston after the return of his friend and patron to 
England. It has the touch of Berkeley's own por- 
trait by the same painter, which is among the treas- 
ures of Art that adorn the walls of Yale College. 

New Haven, December, 1873. * 



COl^TEIsrTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

BIRTH AND PARENTAGE ; EARLY EDUCATION AND STATE OF 
LEARNING IN THE COUNTRY ; BACHELOR'S DEGREE FROM THE 
COLLEGE AT SAYBROOK ; THE COLLEGE REMOVED TO NEW 
HAVEN, AND JOHNSON APPOINTED ONE OP THE TUTORS. HIS 
SETTLEMENT AT WEST HAVEN AND THE INFLUENCE OF A 
PRAYER-BOOK AND AVORKS IN ENGLISH THEOLOGY ... 1 

A. D. 1696-1722. 

CHAPTER H. 

the declaration of johnson and his friends ; struggle 
between feelings and duty; debate before governor 
saltonstall and its results; extracts from notes of 
days ; voyage to england for ordination ; arrival and 
reception; private journal 18 

A. D. 1722, 1723. 
CHAPTER m. 

SICKNESS AND DEATH OF BROWN ; FURTHER EXTRACTS FROM 
PRIVATE journal; VISITS TO OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE; AR- 
RIVAL OP MR. WETMORE ; DEPARTURE FROM ENGLAND, AND 
VOYAGE HOME ; SETTLEMENT AT STRATFORD ; LETTERS TO THE 
BISHOP OF LONDON; MARRIAGE 38 

A. D. 1723-1727. 
CHAPTER IV. 

POLEMICS AND INFIDELITY; BIRTH OF A SON; PERSONAL AC- 
QUAINTANCE WITH DEAN BERKELEY ; VISITS TO HIM AT NEW- 
PORT, AND A CONVERT TO HIS VIEWS ; ALCIPHRON, OR THE 
MINUTE PHILOSOPHER ; RETURN OF BERKELEY TO ENGLAND, 



X CONTENTS. 

AND BENEFACTIONS TO YALE COLLEGE ; RELIGIOUS CONTRO- 
VERSY, AND PUBLICATION OF PAMPHLETS 60 

A. D, 1727-1736. 
CHAPTER V. 

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE ; MEMORIAL TO THE GENERAL AS- 
SEMBLY OF CONNECTICUT ; LETTERS TO BERKELEY ; WHITE- 
FIELD IN NEW ENGLAND AND RELIGIOUS ENTHUSIASM; COM- 
PLAINT TO THE commissary; THE CLERGY OF CONNECTICUT 
PETITIONING FOR A RESIDENT COMMISSARY, AND ASKING THAT 
JOHNSON BE appointed; DOCTOR'S DEGREE FROM THE UNI- 
VERSITY OF OXFORD .92 

A. D. 1736-1743. 
CHAPTER VI. 

INCREASE OF HIS PARISH AND NEW CHURCH AT STRATFORD ; 
MORE CONTROVERSY ; SYSTEM OF MORALITY ; STUDY OF HE- 
BREW, AND HUTCHINSON'S PRINCIPLES ; PHILOSOPHICAL' COR- 
RESPONDENCE ; EDUCATION OF SONS, AND LETTERS TO THE 
ELDER ; PROJECT OF A COLLEGE AT PHILADELPHIA, AND 
JOHNSON INVITED TO ITS CHARGE . . ._ . . .119 

A. D. 1743-1750. 

CHAPTER Vn. 

CORRESPONDENCE WITH FRANKLIN ; DECLINES PHILADELPHIA ; 
" ELEMENTA PHILOSOPHICA " ; DEATH OF BERKELEY AND LET- 
TER FROM HIS SON ; ENGLISH EDITION OF " ELEMENTS OF PHI- 
LOSOPHY " ; SPECULATIVE INQUIRIES, AND NOTIONS ABOUT 
EDUCATION 157 

A. D. 1750-1754. 
CHAPTER Vin. 

PROPOSED COLLEGE AT NEW YORK; JOHNSON INVITED TO THE 
PRESIDENCY ; OBSTACLES TO A CHARTER, AND FINALLY GRANT- 
ED ; LETTERS TO PRESIDENT CLAP; REMOVAL TO NEW YORK 
AND LECTURER IN TRINITY CHURCH ; HIS YOUNGER SON 
CHOSEN TUTOR IN KING'S COLLEGE ; GOES TO ENGLAND FOR OR- 
DINATION AND DIES THERE OF THE SMALL-POX . . .189 

A. D. 1754-1756. 



CONTENTS. xi 

CHAPTER IX. 

GRIEF FOR THE DEATH OF HIS SON AND CORRESPONDENCE WITH 
FRIENDS ; PROGRESS OF THE COLLEGE AND ERECTION OF A 
BUILDING ; LEAVES THE CITY ON ACCOUNT OF THE SMALL- 
POX ; DEATH OF HIS WIFE ; FIRST COMMENCEMENT ; AND IN- 
CLINATIONS TO RESIGN 225 

A. D. 1756-1759. 
CHAPTER X. 

SMALL-POX AGAIN IN NEW YORK, AND RETIREMENT TO STRAT- 
FORD ; MORE affliction; third' commencement; letters 

TO THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY; PUBLICATIONS ON 
PRAYER, AND DEFENCE OF THE LITURGY 247 

A. D. 1759-1761. 

CHAPTER XI. 

FOURTH commencement ; SECOND MARRIAGE ; BENEFACTIONS 
TO THE COLLEGE ; DR. JAY AUTHORIZED TO MAKE COLLECTIONS 
IN ENGLAND ; ARRIVAL OF REV. MYLES COOPER ; RELIGIOUS 
CONTROVERSY'; AND FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE . . . 265 

■ A. D. 1761-1763. 
CHAPTER XII. 

THE SMALL-POX IN NEW Y'ORK ; DEATH OF HIS WIFE ; RESIGNA- 
TION OF THE PRESIDENCY AND RETIREMENT TO STRATFORD ; 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH FRIENDS IN ENGLAND ; RE-APPOINT- 
MENT TO HIS FORMER MISSION ; ADDRESS TO THE BISHOP OF 
LONDON ; THE STAMP ACT ; CONTINUED INTEREST IN THE COL- 
LEGE ; AND CLERICAL CONVENTION 286 

A. D. 1763-1766. 
CHAPTER Xm. 

REVIEW OF HUTCHINSON'S PHILOSOPHY ; STUDY OF HEBREW AND 
PUBLICATION OF GRAMMAR ; INDIAN SCHOOL ; DEPARTURE OF 
HIS SON FOR ENGLAND ; CHANDLER'S APPEAL ; CORRESPON- 
DENCE WITH HIS SON ; ENGLISH ANCESTRY ; AND DEATH OF 
ARCHBISHOP SECKER . . . 305 

A. D. 1766-1768. 



xii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

STRUGGLE FOR AMERICAN BISHOPS CONTINUED ; FOREIGN COR- 
RESPONDENCE ; BISHOP LOWTH AND HEBREW GRAMMAR; AS- 
SISTANT MINISTER ; MARRIAGE OF GRANDDAUGHTER ; AND 
PROLONGED ABSENCE OF HIS SON * 324 

A. D. 1768-1770. 
CHAPTER XV. 

DESIRE FOR AMERICAN BISHOPS UNQUENCHED ; LETTERS FROM 
DR. BERKELEY AND THE BISHOP OF LONDON ; JOY AT THE RE- 
TURN OF HIS SON ; WISH FOR A PEACEFUL EXIT ; DEATH AND 
burial; CONCLUSION 341 

A. D. 1770-1772. 

Appendix A 361 

Appendix B 366 



LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 



SAMUEL JOHNSO:tT. 



CHAPTER I. 

BIRTH AND PARENTAGE ; EARLY EDUCATION AND STATE OF LEARN- 
ING IN THE COUNTRY; BACHELOR'S DEGREE FROM THE COL- 
LEGE AT SAYBROOK; THE COLLEGE REMOVED TO NEW HAVEN, 
AND JOHNSON APPOINTED ONE OF THE TUTORS. HIS SETTLE- 
MENT AT WEST HAVEN AND THE INFLUENCE OF A PRAYER- 
BOOK AND WORKS IN ENGLISH THEOLOGY. 

A. D. 1696-1722. 

It would not be worth while to write the life of 
Samuel Johnson, if it was as barren of incident and 
historic interest as the lives of most clergymen. But 
he lived in eventful times, and the part which he 
bore in the literary, ecclesiastical, and educational 
affairs of the country will warrant the publication of 
fuller memorials than those hitherto given to the 
public. 

He was born in Guilford, Connecticut, on the 14 th 

of October, 1696, 0. S., and was the great grandson of 

Robert Johnson, who with his wife Adaline and four 

sons, Robert, Thomas, John, and William, came from 

1 



2 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, and first appeared at 
New Haven in 1641. Eobert, the eldest of these sons, 
finished his academic education at Harvard College, 
and graduated in the class of 1645. He went to 
Rowley, in Massachusetts, where a brother of his fa- 
ther had settled, and was pursuing his studies with a 
view to the sacred ministry, when he sickened and 
died. In his will, dated " 13th of the 7th mo. 1649," 
and probated at Ipswich " the 26th of the 1st mo. 
1650," he directed his executors to distribute a por- 
tion of his goods to the poor of Rowley, and to return 
the remainder to his father, Robert Johnson, at New 
Haven. Thomas, the second son, died a bachelor. John 
married, and his descendants settled in Wallingford 
and Middle town. 

William, the grandfather of Samuel Johnson, and 
who was twelve years old when the family emigrated 
from England, removed to Guilford, and became one 
of the leading men in that town and a deacon in the 
Congregational Church. He married July 2, 1651, 
Elizabeth Bushnell, daughter of Francis Bushnell of 
Saybrook, and had eight daughters and two sons — 
the youngest, Nathaniel, dying not long after his 
birth, and surviving his mother but a few weeks. 
Samuel, the father of the subject of this volume, was 
born in 1670, and at twenty-six married Mary, 
daughter of David Sage of Middletown, by whom he 
had eleven children, six sons and five daughters. He 
was a successor to his father in the office of a Congre- 
gational deacon at Guilford, and the distinguished son, 
late in life, speaking of them both, and giving some 
account of their character to one of his own children, 
said, they were " well esteemed for men of good sense 



OF SAMUEL JOIINSOK 3 

and piety, but neither of them had much more of a 
turn for worldly wisdom than I have." 

Samuel, though not the first-born of his parents, 
was the eldest child that lived beyond infancy, and 
he appears to have . been a pet of his grandfather, 
William, who taught him to read and commit to mem- 
ory not only passages of Scripture, but the Lord's 
Prayer and the Creed. He was very proud of his 
progress, and occasionally took the boy with him in 
visiting his neighbors, and made him repeat for their 
entertainment specimens of the knowledge which he 
had acquired. Among his earliesji recollections Samuel 
mentions the finding in a book of his grandfather's, 
several Hebrew words which excited his curiosity, but 
no one could tell him their meaning, or explain them 
further than to say they belonged to the original 
language in which the Old Testament was written. 
This but increased his desire for learning, and as the 
project of establishing a college in the colony at Say- 
brook, in the neighborhood of Guilford, had just then 
taken shape, he was marked out in the mind of the 
household as a future candidate for its course of in- 
struction. Upon the death of his grandfather, how- 
ever, which happened when he was six years old, the 
design was relinquished, and it might not have been 
renewed had not his fondness for books continued and 
the prospect of bringing him up to other business be- 
come discourao-ing;. 

In the eleventh year of his age, he was sent to a 
school, in his native place, kept at that time by Jared 
Eliot, a young man who had graduated at the new 
college, a son of the then recently deceased minister 
of Guilford, and whose affection for his pupil ripened 



4 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

into friendly relations in after life. But he was not 
long to enjoy the happiness of such an instructor. 
Before the year expired, Mr. Ehot relinquished the 
school to prepare for his settlement in the ministry 
at Killingworth, now Clinton, and the lad, impatient 
to learn, was finally sent from home and placed under 
the care of Joseph Smith, pastor of a newly organized 
church in Upper Middletown, now Cromwell. Though 
a graduate of Harvard College, Mr. Smith was not a 
scholar who inspired his pupil with much respect for 
his attainments, and after trying in vain for six 
months to make progress in his studies, he left his 
poorly qualified master and returned to Guilford. 

Here he fell first into the hands of Daniel Chap- 
man, another graduate of the new college, who was 
an improvement upon his last instructor, and with 
whom he continued for nearly two years. At length 
he found in the person of Mr. James, who had b6en 
educated in England, a respectable classical scholar, 
and notwithstanding some eccentricities of character, 
a very good teacher. Under his tuition he made 
rapid advancement in Latin , and Greek, and by the 
time he had attained the age of fourteen years, he 
was pronounced fit to join the College at Saybrook. 

There was not much to be proud of at this period 
in the state of learning throughout the country. The 
old scholars and Puritan divines of the Connecticut 
and Massachusetts colonies, who came with the early 
emigrants, had descended to their graves, and the 
generation that succeeded them, not having had the 
advantages of the Universities in England, fell behind 
the fathers, and was greatly deficient, if tested by a 
high standard of education. The course of studies 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 5 

prescribed in the new college was brief, for " the ut- 
most as to classical learning that was now generally 
aimed at, " says Johnson in his Autobiography,^ " and 
indeed for twenty or thirty years after, was no more 
than to construe five or six of Tully's Orations, and as 
many books of Virgil poorly, and most of the Greek 
Testament," with a portion of the Hebrew Psalter. 
His first tutor at college was Joseph Noyes, one of 
the nine graduates of the institution in 1709, and af- 
terwards for forty-five years pastor of the First Ec- 
clesiastical Society in New Haven. His " tutorial re- 
nown " according to President Stiles, " was then great 
and excellent," and having some knowledge of He- 
brew, he encouraged his pupil to devote the little 
leisure he might have, to the study of a language 
which he was chiefly desirous to understand, and 
which soon became his favorite branch of philology. 
The tutor in the department of mathematics and 
mental and moral philosophy, was Phineas Fisk, and 
his instructions, like those of his colleague in the 
classics, had a limited range, and were confined to 
the imperfect systems not yet brushed away by the 
scientific discoveries of Descartes, Boyle, Locke, and 
Newton. When Johnson graduated in 1714, some- 
thing had been heard of these great names, as well 
as of a new philosophy that was attracting attention in 
England, but the young men were cautioned against 
receiving it, and told that it would corrupt the pure 
religion of the country and bring in another system of 
divinity. Ames's '^ Medulla Theologias " and " Cases of 
Conscience " and " Wollebius," had been established as 
the standard of orthodoxy, and no variation from these 
was admissible. The trustees of the institution, at the 

1 MS. 



6 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

outset, made a fundamental rule that special care 
should be taken to "ground the students well in 
theoretical divinity," and the Kector was forbidden to 
teach or allow others to teach any system contrary to 
their order. 

It was less difficult to confine attention to the old 
scholastic systems, for the reason that, books of learn- 
ing in the land were rare, and opportunities for im- 
provement small. The few works brought over from 
England by the first settlers were treatises published a 
century before ; and Johnson early acquired a repu- 
tation for skill by making a synopsis of them, and re- 
ducing to some method all parts of learning then 
known, — "a curious cobweb of distributions and def- 
initions " as he himself termed it, — "which only 
served to blow him up with a great conceit that he 
was now an adept." But his pride of opinion was 
afterwards thoroughly humbled. He accidentally fell 
in with a copy of Lord Bacon's "Instauratio Magna," 
or "Advancement of Learning," — possibly the only 
one then in the country — and purchasing it immedi- 
ately, he lost no time in devouring its contents. It 
opened to him a new world of thought. With an 
unprejudiced mind he read its pages, and considered 
and reconsidered the whole circle of sciences as they 
had been investigated and arranged by this remark- 
able man. He was thus led to see his own littleness 
in comparison with Lord Bacon's greatness, and to 
use his own words, he " found himself like one at 
once emerging out of the glimmer of twilight into 
the full sunshine of open day." 

After completing his collegiate course and receiv- 
ing the degree of Bachelor of Arts, he followed the 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 7 

example of Eliot, and entered upon the labor of teach- 
ing a school of the higher order in Guilford. His 
classmate and intimate friend, Daniel Brown, acted in 
the like capacity at New Haven, and the correspond- 
ence carried on between them at this period was 
full of affection, and bore upon theology, and ques- 
tions that related to " philosophy in general and 
logic in particular." The concerns of the College, 
too, Avere much in their thoughts. Brown, in one of 
his letters dated August 3, 1716, wrote: "As to 
domestic affairs, please to be informed, that July 18, 
Mr. Moss, Hemingway, and Noyes, went to conse- 
crate your chapel at the North Village. . . . This 
town hath given eight acres of land hard joining to 
the town plot, for the use of the College, if it comes 
here. Considerable of money is subscribed also." 

The beginning of the institution was a contribution 
of about forty folio volumes, almost all theological, 
and given by different ministers of the colony " for 
founding a college in Connecticut." The next year, 
1701, this library was increased by another private 
donation, and in 1714, Jeremiah Dummer, the agent 
of the colony in England, sent over a valuable collec- 
tion of eight hundred volumes, some of which were 
his own gift, and the remainder had been obtained at 
his sohcitation from various English gentlemen and 
authors. The whole number of books was now about 
one thousand, and amono; them were works of emi- 
nent writers of the Church of England, both clergy- 
men and laymen. Johnson and his literary friends 
eagerly embraced opportunities of becoming ac- 
quainted with the new collection, and read for the 
first time the works of some of the best English di- 



8 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

vines and philosophers. The hbrary was placed at 
Saybrook, where the instruction was carried on by 
two tutors, and where the private commencements 
were held. But no college building had been erected 
there ; and as the original charter gave to the trustees 
the right of selecting the town in which the institu- 
tion should be permanently fixed, a diversity of opin- 
ion arose on the subject, and sharp controversies 
sprung up which led to disorder and dissatisfaction 
among the students. They complained of the want of 
proper accommodations at Saybrook, and entertained 
so httle respect for their tutors as to break out into 
open rebellion towards the end of the year 1715. 
Those from towns on the Connecticut River, acting un- 
der the guidance of Timothy Woodbridge and Thomas 
Buckingham, ministers at Hartford and trustees of the 
College, collected together at Wethersfield, where in- 
struction was set up in a collegiate way by two tutors, 
and in which place or in Hartford these trustees 
wished the institution to be finally located. Other 
students from the sea-side towns put themselves un- 
der the care and tuition of Mr. Johnson at Guilford, 
while Mr. Andrew, the rector |9ro tern., who resided at 
Milford, appears to have taken upon himself the in- 
struction and oversight of the senior class. 

The breach thus made in the colony could not be 
readily healed, and the Collegiate School, for so it was 
denominated at that time, continued in a disordered 
state till September, 1716, when a majority of the 
trustees, of which number was Governor Saltonstall, 
voted to remove it to New Haven. The sanction 
of the General Assembly, which met the following 
month, was asked and obtained for the removal, and 



OF SAMUEL johnso:jt. 9 

then the trustees proceeded to elect Mr. Johnson one 
of the tutors ; and with a view of concihating the 
opposition, they chose Samuel Smith, who was of the 
Wethersfield party, to be the other. But the dis- 
satisfaction was not appeased, and at Saybrook 
forcible resistance was made to the removal of the 
library, so that the Governor and Council deemed it 
expedient to convene there, and aid the sheriff in the 
performance of his duty. Besides other lawless acts, 
the carts provided for transporting the books were 
destroyed in the night time, the bridges between 
Saybrook and New Haven were rendered impassable, 
and during the week in which the library was upon 
the road, many valuable books and papers were lost. 
An attempt to supersede Governor Saltonstall at the 
next election, for his activity in the matter, was Avell- 
nigh successful,^ and the feud in the government was 
not diminished when a subscription was set on foot in 
New Haven, " and in all the neighboring towns, for 
building a college ; and one Mr. Caner of Boston was 
procured to undertake the work, who directly applied 
himself to the business . "^ Mr. Johnson, under a com- 
mission from the trustees, waited on Mr. Smith to 
induce him to accept the office of tutor and bring his 
scholars with him to New Haven, but he and his 
party were inexorable, and resolved to maintain their 
ground and carry on their design. Johnson, there- 
fore, was obliged to enter upon the tutorship alone, 
and with about fifteen students from the sea-side 
began his course of instruction at New Haven, being 
assisted by Mr. Noyes, the minister of the town. 
In 1718 the trustees appointed Daniel Brown to be 

1 Prof. Kingsley's Sketch of Yale College, p. 7. 2 Johnson MSS. 



10 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

his colleague, — the classmate whose turn of mind 
and thirst for knowledge not only made him an agree- 
able companion, but a hearty supporter of new studies 
in the line of philosophy and mathematics. By the 
autumn of that year several apartments were finished 
in the college building, and Johnson first lodged and 
set up housekeeping therein, and shortly his colleague 
followed his example. The institution was now gain- 
ing friends and a good reputation. The General 
Assembly had hitherto, for the sake of peace, con- 
nived at the faction in Wethersfield, hoping it would 
die out of itself J but at the October session in 1718, 
an act was passed requiring all the students to repair 
to the established college. " They made an appear- 
ance of submission, and came all at once in a caravan ; 
but it soon appeared that they had no good intention ; 
they found fault with everything, and made all the 
mischief they could, as they were doubtless instructed 
to do ; " -^ and after six weeks they withdrew and 
rejoined the old faction. At the next session of the 
General Assembly measures were concerted to recon- 
cile the conflicting interests, and finally the difference 
was compromised in this way : the scholars should 
return to their duty and abide at New Haven ; and 
in case they did, the degrees which had been given 
at Wethersfield should be allowed good, " and a State 
House should be built at the public expense a»o Hart- 
ford." Thus the unhappy controversy — a manu- 
script history of which by Johnson has been pre- 
served — was terminated, and liberal donations of 
money and of books by Governor Yale gave to the 
college a new impulse, and the name which it now 

1 Johnson MSS. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 11 

bears was then conferred on it in honor of him for 
his timely benefactions. 

The state of the institution demanded a resident 
rector, and as Mr. Andre av was advanced in hfe and 
disinchned to remove from Milford, the trustees chose 
Timothy Cutler, who had been for ten years the 
pastor in Stratford and a popular preacher in the 
colony, to be his successor. He was a native of 
Charlestown in Massachusetts, and graduated at Har- 
vard College in 1701. His learning and superior 
talents qualified him for the station ; but the thought 
of his separation from them grieved his parishioners, 
and they resisted it for some time with much firm- 
ness. At length, however, it was accomplished, and 
Mr. Cutler established himself with his family at New 
Haven in the autumn of 1719, after which Johnson 
retired from the office of tutor, though not from 
association with his literary friends — the Rector and 
Mr. Brown. Theology was the study to which he 
had always intended to devote himself; and as the 
people of West Haven — a village only four miles 
from the college, and at that time a part of New 
Haven — earnestly desired him to settle among them, 
he yielded to their solicitations, and was ordained 
there in the Congregational way on the 20th of March, 
1720, "having been," according to his own account, 
" a preacher occasionally ever since he was eighteen." ^ 
He might have found other fields of pastoral labor in 
many respects more inviting, but his desire to be near 
the college and the library, as well as near those 
for whose society he had the keenest relish, led him 
to forego the acceptance of better offers, and give 

1 Autobtof/rapliy. 



12 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

the preference to a situation of comparatively little 
promise. 

The books most frequently in his hands at this 
period were not calculated to strengthen his faith in 
Independency, and some time before his ordination, 
for the purpose of '^ methodizing his thoughts," and 
assisting his memory, he drew up . a scheme of relig- 
ion, embracing its doctrines and duties, and following 
the plan of John Scott in his " Christian Life," a 
work which he greatly admired and pronounced to 
be the best and most compendious that had yet fallen 
in his way. His inquisitive mind would not allow 
him to rest contented in hasty conclusions, and so 
early as 1715 he met with the discourse of Arch- 
bishop King on " the Inventions of Men in the Wor- 
ship of God," — the reading of which helped to in- 
crease his dislike of extempore prayers, and to confirm 
him in the opinion that the use of pre-composed forms 
of public worship was more devotional, and showed 
much greater reverence for the Divine Majesty. He 
had been bred up in prejudice against the Church of 
England, but a good, religious man in Guilford placed 
in his hands a copy of the Book of Common Prayer, 
and this, with the treatise of Archbishop King, perused 
the year before, caused all his prejudices to vanish, 
and inspired him with a love of the Liturgy, which, 
contrary to his former belief, he found to be collected 
for the most part out of the Holy Scriptures. 

The direction of his thoughts may be learned from 
the books which he read after retiring from his tutor- 
ship in the college. About the time of his settlement 
at West Haven he began a catalogue of those, which 
he perused with evident care, and curiously enough, 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 13 

at the head of this list stands the Liturgy of the 
Church of England, followed immediately by Potter on 
"Church Government," and Patrick's "Devotions;" 
and a little later, by " The Whole Duty of Man," 
Wall on " Infant Baptism," Echard's " Church His- 
tory," and Hooker's "Ecclesiastical Polity." The 
shelves of the well-selected library contained other 
books in English theology — among them the works 
of such eminent divines as Barrow, Beveridge, Bull, 
Burnet, Hoadly, Pearson, Sharp, Sherlock, South, 
Taylor, Tillotson, AVake, and Whitby, and all were 
included in the list of those which passed under his 
review and consideration during the brief period of 
his residence at West Haven. So much was he 
opposed to extempore prayers in public that he pro- 
vided himself with forms drawn chiefly from the 
Liturgy of the Church of England, and repeated 
them with a fervor which won the admiration not 
only of his own flock but of persons connected with 
the adjoining parishes. It was his ordinary practice 
to compose carefully one discourse a month ; but he 
read attentively the sermons of Barrow and other 
celebrated preachers, and so charged his mind with 
their thoughts that, by the help of a few notes, he 
delivered the substance of them in lans-uao-e of his 
own, and thus acquired a facility of expression which 
became of service to him in after life. 

It is easy to foresee the influence which such a course 
of reading would have upon a candid and inquiring 
mind like that of Johnson. It threw new hght over 
subjects that had long embarrassed him, and he was 
unable to find any sufficient support for the Congre- 
gational form of church government or for the rigid 



14 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Calvinistic tenets in which he had been educated. 
He spoke his doubts to his hterary friends, and they 
shared them with him ; so that from first meeting in 
a fraternal way at the residences of each other or in 
the college library, and examining the doctrines and 
practices of the Primitive Church, they had begun to 
be uneasy and anxious about the form and authority 
of their own discipline and worship. How to conduct 
themselves under the circumstances was a delicate 
question. There were six of these earnest inquirers 
besides Johnson, and they occupied responsible posi- 
tions in and around New Haven. Cutler and Brown 
carried on the college ; John Hart was the minister at 
East Guilford, now Madison ; Jared Eliot was the 
minister at Killingworth ; Samuel Whittelsey at Wall- 
ingford ; and James Wetmore at North Haven. With 
the exception of Cutler, all were graduates of the 
college, and three of them were classmates, who had 
been brought into very intimate association with each 
other. Their conferences and readings led them to the 
conclusion that the Church of England was the near- 
est to the apostolic model, and if conformity to it had 
been an easy thing, they would most likely have re- 
linquished at once their positions and made the change. 
Johnson wrote in his private journal, on the 3d of 
January, 1722, these honest and touching words : — 

I hoped when I was ordained that I had sufficiently sat- 
isfied myself of the validity of Presbyterian ordination under 
my circumstances.^ But alas ! I have ever since had growing 

1 A manuscript of Johnson "written at Westhaven, Dec. 20, A. d. 1719," entitled, 
"My present Thoughts of Episcopac}' with what I conceive may justifie me in accept- 
ing Presbyterial Ordination," gives the state of his mind three months before he was 
formally set apart to the work of the ministry. In this paper he first sets down his 
apprehensions formed from the best light he could obtain, which were entirely favor- 
able to Episcopacy, and then considers the circumstances under which he was called 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 15 

suspicions that it is not right, and that I am an usurper in the 
house of God, which sometimes I must confess fills my mind 
with a great deal of perplexity, and I know not what to do ; 
my case is very unhappy, Oh that I could either gain satis- 
faction that I may lawfully proceed in the execution of the 
ministerial function, or that Providence would make my way 
plain for the obtaining of Episcopal orders. O my God, di- 
rect my steps ; lead and guide me and my friends in thy way 
everlasting. 

The Church of England scarcely had a foothold in 
Connecticut at this time. The Rev. George Pigot, a 
Missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts, arrived at Stratford in the 
spring of 1722, and was as much surprised as gratified 
to receive from Johnson an early visit, and learn from 
him the direction in which some of the leading minds 
in the colony were drifting. He was pleased to accept 
an invitation to hold a private conference with the 
inquirers at New Haven, and the result was too good 
to be kept from his parishioners and from the knowl- 
edge of the Society at home. Writing to the Secre- 
tary in August, he said : " The leading people of this 
colony are generally prejudiced against their mother 
church, but yet I have great expectations of a glo- 
rious revolution of the ecclesiastics of this country, 
because the most distinguished gentlemen among 

to proceed. Among the reasons that led him to accept Presbyterial ordination — 
were "the passionate entreaties of a tender mother," the effect upon the College, if 
he publicly declared for Episcopacy, his "want of that politeness and those quali- 
fications which would be requisite in making such an appearance," and the not 
understanding sufficiently what was needed to take Episcopal orders. "Although I 
seem," he adds in conclusion, "tolerably well satisfied in these my thoughts of 
the right of Episcopacy, yet, considering the meanness of my advantages and the 
scantiness of my time hitherto, I have reason to be very jealous whether I have not 
too much precipitated into those opinions, and then finally perhaps I may in the 
mean time be doing some service to promote the main interest of religion, though it 
be not as a method so desirable." 



16 LIFE AND CORKESPONDENCE 

them are resolvedly bent to promote her welfare and 
embrace her bajDtism and discipline, and if the leaders 
fall in, there is no doubt to be made of the people. 
Those gentlemen who are ordained pastors among 
the Independents, namely, Mr. Cutler, the president 
of Yale College, and five more, have held a conference 
with me, and are determined to declare themselves 
professors of the Church of England, as soon as they 
shall understand they will be sujjported at home; 
they complain much, both of the necessity of going 
home for orders, and of their inability for such an 
undertaking ; they also surmise it to be entirely dis- 
serviceable to our church, because, if they should 
come to England, they must leave their flocks, and 
thereby give the vigilant enemy an opportunity to 
seize their cures and supply them with inveterate 
schismatics; but if a bishop could be sent us, they 
could secure their parishes now and hereafter, because 
the people here are legally qualified to choose their 
own ministers as often as a vacancy happens, and this 
would lighten the Honorable Society's expenses to a 
wonderful deg;ree."^ 

Pigot read with too much hope what he regarded 
as the signs of the times. He had only been in the 
colony a few months, and his interview with these 
gentlemen had made him sanguine that their declara- 
tion for Episcopacy would be followed by the con- 
version of other ministers of less note, as well as by 
the conversion of large portions of their respective 
flocks. He had not seen how the spirit of the old 
Puritan opponents of the Church of England would 
rise up against the movement, and the "glorious 

1 Documentary History, Conn., vol. i. p. 57. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 17 

revolution of the ecclesiastics/' if not a picture of his 
imagination, was at least still in embryo. Johnson, 
who was the leader of the van, and the most active 
among them, appears to have kept his mind open to 
conviction, for after making an entry in the catalogue 
of books before referred to of the works of Cyprian, 
he added immediately under it these words : " Which, 
with other ancient and modern authors read for these 
three last years, have proved so convincing of the 
necessity of Episcopal Ordination to me and my 
friends, that this Commencement, September 13, 1722, 
we found it necessary to express our doubts to the 
ministers, from whom, if we receive not satisfaction, 
we shall be obliged to desist." 



18 LIFE AND COKRESPONDENCE 



CHAPTER II. 

THE DECLARATION OF JOHNSON AND HIS FRIENDS ; STRUGGLE 
BETWEEN FEELINGS AND DUTY; DEBATE BEFORE GOVERNOR 
SALTONSTALL AND ITS RESULTS ; EXTRACTS FROM NOTES OP 
DAYS ; VOYAGE TO ENGLAND FOR ORDINATION ; ARRIVAL 
AND RECEPTION ; PRIVATE JOURNAL. 

A. D. 1722-1723. 

The formal declaration of Johnson and his friends, 
made by request of the Trustees, recited that " some of 
them doubted the validity, and the rest were more fully 
persuaded of the invalidity of Presbyterian ordination 
in opposition to the Episcopal." They asked for 
" satisfaction," and time was allowed for further in- 
quiry and consultation, in the hope that they might 
get rid of their scruples, or at least be quiet and 
contented in their positions. 

Johnson entered in his Notes of Days, September 
17, immediately after the Commencement, this account 
of his feelings : — 

Being at length bro't to such scruples concerning the valid- 
ity of my ordination, that I could not proceed in administra- 
tion without intolerable uneasiness of mind, I have now at 
length (after much study and prayer to God for direction), 
together with my friends (Mr. T. Cutler, Mr. J. Hart, Mr. 
S. Whittelsey, Mr. Jared Eliot, Mr. James Wetmore, Mr. 
Daniel Brown), after some private conferences with minis- 
ters, this Commencement made a public declaration of my 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 19 

scruples and uneasiness, and am advised to suspend adminis- 
tration for the present. It is with great sorrow of heart 
that I am forced thus, by the uneasiness of my conscience, 
to be an occasion of so much uneasiness to my dear friends, 
my poor people, and indeed to the whole Colony. God, I 
beseech Thee grant that I may not, by an adherence to Thy 
necessary truths and laws (as I profess in my conscience they 
seem to me) be a stumbling-block or occasion of fall to any 
soul. Let not our thus appearing for Thy Church be any 
ways accessory, though accidentally to the hurt of religion 
in general or any person in particular. Have mercy. Lord, 
have mercy on the souls of men, and pity and enlighten those 
that are grieved at this accident. Lead into the way of truth 
all those that have erred and are deceived ; and if we in this 
affair are misled, I beseech Thee show us our error before it 
be too late, that we may repair the damage. Grant us Thy 
illumination for Christ's sake. Amen. 

The General Assembly was to meet in New Haven 
the ensuing October, and at the suggestion of Gurdon 
Saltonstall, the Governor of the Colony, a debate was 
held in the College Library, the day after the session 
commenced, for the purpose of discussing the whole 
subject, and disposing of questions that had created 
serious alarm in the public mind. "He moderated 
very genteely " on the occasion ; but the " gentlemen 
on the Dissenting; side " had not directed their studies 
this way, and hence when they came to the debate 
they were not so well prepared to cope with their 
opponents and answer their arguments. They rested 
their chief objection to Episcopacy on the promiscuous 
use of the words bishop and preshyter in the New 
Testament ; but this objection was met by citing such 
Scripture facts as the evident superintendency of 
Timothy over the clergy and people at Ephesus, 



20 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

of Titus in Crete, and of the angels of the seven 
churches in Asia. The history of the first and purest 
ages of Christianity was also appealed to, and " at 
length," says Johnson in his Autobiography, '^ an old 
minister got up and made an harangue against them 
in the declamatory way to raise an odium, but he had 
not gone far before Mr. Saltonstall got up and said he 
only designed a friendly argument, and so put an end 
to the conference." 

Eliot, Hart, and Whittelsey were unable to with- 
stand the alternate fury and entreaties of their friends, 
and leaving their scruples behind, they quietly settled 
back into their former relations, and continued to the 
end of their days in the service of the Congregational 
ministry.^ But the others were more resolute, and 
followed their convictions. Johnson made a private 
record of the reasons which influenced him in the 
step they were about to take. They are worth pro- 
ducing here in full : — 

Oct, 6, 1722. — In the fear of God setting myself now ujDon 
the serious consideration of the great and urgent affair now 
under my hand and a deliberate examination wherein my 
duty lies, I now set down the motives which lie before me on 
both sides of the question, whether I shall now go over to 
England and offer myself to the service of the Church ? 

1. That which I propound to govern mj^self in general in 
this affair is the awful account which I expect to give of all 
that I do in this world, before the dread tribunal of God, 
where the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, and every 
one shall receive according to his work. 

2. Though I have been a grievous sinner, and deserve to 

1 Chandler, in his Life of Johnson, p. 31, says: "Amidst all the controversies in 
which the Church was engaged during their lives, they were never known to act or 
say or insinuate anything to her disadvantage." 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 21 

be left of God, yet as those instances wherein I have offended 
bear no relation to any of these controversies, and therefore 
cannot be supposed to have any influence, by way of tempta- 
tion, to the present undertaking, but (if anything) the con- 
trary ; so I do renounce and abhor them, judge and condemn 
myself for them, and humbly purpose to continue forever in 
watchfulness against, and war with them, — and to make 
business of mortification, by God's grace, imploring his par- 
don and mercy in Jesus Christ, and therefore I hope in God 
He does not, and will not abandon me to err in anything of 
great consequence. 

3. God's glory, the good of his Church in general and 
the safety of precious souls in particular, are the ends I would 
always and particularly in the present case have in my 
eye. 

4. Upon the most deliberate consideration I cannot find 
that either the frowns or applauses, the pleasures or profits 
of the world have any prevailing influence in the affair. 

One week later, and three days before the discus- 
sion in the College Library he made another record 
thus : — 

Oct. 13. — Now therefore to consider particularly what lies 
against, — 

I. In the first place, and here are several particulars. 

1. Some few seeming texts of Scripture and a possibility 
of interpreting all on the side of and in favor to Presbytery. 

2. Breaking the peace of the country in general and my 
own people in particular, which are great things. 

3. Danger of the stumbling of weak brethren and the 
damage of precious and immortal souls, and grieving good 
men. Now these considerations are indeed of great weight, 
and it is not a little thing should be sufficient to balance them. 

II. On the other hand I consider, — 

1. Sundry texts of Scriptiu'e there are which seem to me 
plainly to intimate that Episcopacy is of apostolical ap- 



22 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

pointment, which together with the unanimous witness of 
the Churcli immediately after the Apostles' times and down- 
ward in the purest ages of Christianity, seem as much at least 
(if not more) to oblige my conscience to submit to Episco- 
pacy as a divine appointment, as to observe the first day of 
the week, and therefore do as much oblige me to declare 
in favor of Episcopacy in this country as for the Lord's day, 
supposing I am in a seventh day country. 

2. If this be therefore a divine or at least apostolical in- 
stitution (as I am fully persuaded it is), fear of breaking 
peace should not shut up my mouth in a matter of so much 
consequence. 

1. Considering first that this country is in such a misera- 
ble state as to church government (let whatever hypothesis 
will, be right), that it needs reformation and alteration in 
that affair. 

2. The least I can say is, that I was in so much doubt 
whether my ordination was lawful, that it utterly hindered 
my devotion in administration. 

3. I am indeed forced to think (comparing my case with 
what I find in ancient authors, and especially in S. Cyprian) 
that had I lived and administered without and in opposition 
to Episcopacy, I should have been excommunicated for a 
schismatic in the purest ages. 

4. That peace without one of Christ's institutions is a 
false peace, and it is best being on the surest side. 

5. There may be offense taken where there is none given. 
If others are damnified by my doing my duty I cannot help 
that, however I endeavor the contrary. 

6. There may be more souls damnified for want of Episco- 
pal government in the country and that by far at length, 
than by my making this appearance. 

7. If I am, by what ordination I have had, consecrated to 
God, yet I am not on this account guilty of sacrilege for that 
I design yet to devote myself, my whole life to the service of 
Christ and his Church, and so promote the good of precious 
souls, and this (if I might be allowed, and so far as I am 
allowed) in this place [West Haven]. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 23 

These considerations all laid together, it seems to be my 
duty to venture myself in the arms of Almighty Providence 
to cross the ocean for the sake of that excellent church, the 
Church of England ; and God preserve me, and if I err, God 
forgive me. 

This transcript of his feelings is a proof that he did 
not expect any new light to rise from the debate in 
the College Library, and shine through his doubts. 
His convictions had settled into a definite plan of ac- 
tion, and the 23d day of October found him and his 
two friends. Cutler and Brown, on their way to Bos- 
ton to embark for England. It was a slow journey, 
and reaching Bristol, in Rhode Island, on the 28th, 
he made a note thus, — " We were most kindly enter- 
tained at Bristol, at Colonel Mackintosh's. Here, being 
Sunday, I first went to church. How amiable are thy 
tabernacles, Lord of hosts. Mr. Orem preached." 
Taking with them a letter from this gentleman to the 
Secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts, they proceeded to Boston 
where they were warmly welcomed by friends in- 
terested in their movement, and spent a few days be- 
fore embarking in the ship Mary, commanded by 
Captain Thomas Lithered. These friends had engaged 
their passage in this vessel, and very kindly at their 
own expense they provided everything necessary for 
the voyage. The last day in Boston is mentioned 
by Johnson in his private journal as follows : — 

November 4. — Sunday. Mr. Brown and I read the Earl of 
Nottingham against Whiston. This day, by God's grace I 
first communicated vnth. the Church of England. How de- 
vout, grand, and venerable was every part of the adminis- 
tration, every way becoming so awful a mystery ! Mr. Cuth- 



24 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

bert of Annapolis Royal, preached. To-morrow we venture 
upon the great ocean for Great Britain. God Almighty pre- 
serve us ! - 

The voyage across the Atlantic one hundred and 
fifty years ago was a momentous and awful under- 
taking. It was not attended with as many comforts 
as now, and a sailing vessel was the only mode of con- 
veying passengers. Business rather than pleasure 
impelled men to attempt it, and strong health was 
needed to bear its hardships. In these days of steam 
navigation, when quick passages in large flouting pal- 
aces are confidently anticipated, we are apt to forget 
the sacrifices and trials of those, who in the close and 
narrow cabins of sailing ships, were tossed for weeks 
and months on the ocean, and entirely dependent 
upon favoring gales to waft them to the point of their 
destination. Johnson in a fine hand, which it must 
have required the sharpest eyesight to have written 
as it does now to read, kept " a journal of his voyage 
to, abode at, and return from England," and some idea 
of his perils and of the manner in which he employed 
his time, may be formed by liberally extracting from 
its pages. His entries during the outward passage 
are thus made : — 

November 15. — We have been even ten days now upon the 
great ocean, and have had much contrary wind, made small 
progress, were once in danger. God preserved us. To whom 
be glory. May He send us a good and prosperous gale of 
wind for Christ's sake. I have just finished reading, since I 
came on board, the Abp. of Cambray's demonstration of the 
existence of God. 

20tA. — We are, through God's goodness, safe after an- 
other grievous storm. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 25 

. 23(^. — Just finished Mr. Kettlewell on the Sacrament, 
now finished Mr. Herbert's " Temple." 

2Qth. — AVe are safe, by God's goodness, after a storm. 
Just finished Mr. Nelson's " Practice of True Devotion." 

29i7i. — Finished Dr. Taylor's " Golden Guide, or Guide 
to Devotion and for the Penitent," and " Hudibras." 

Dec. 3c?. — Yesterday, Dec, 2, a grievous storm. Thanks 
to God we are yet safe ! Three last week. 

Finished Dr. Bray on the Baptismal Covenant. 

bill. — This week tolerable weather, only the wind too 
southerly. 
Finished Osterwald's Catechism. 

12it7i. — This day we came to soundings. 

Finished reading " The Gentleman instructed in the con- 
duct of a virtuous and happy Life." Truly an excellent 
piece. Dedicated by Dr. Hicks. 

l-ith. — This day, blessed be God, we first came in sight of 
land. The first we made was the Isle of Wight, having been 
ten days without an observation. We were marvelously 
conducted by the good hand of Providence through the fog 
thus far up the channel : cui laus. 

Read a short answer to a Popish Catechism. Anon. 

Thus ends our boisterous and uncomfortable voyage, after 
five weeks and four days. 

N. B. — We read prayers Sundays, Wednesdays, and 
Fridays. 

It was purely for religious purposes that they en- 
countered such perils on the sea. A conscientious 
regard fiar Avhat they believed to be the truth, and 
not ambition or the spirit of adventure, led them to 
great self-sacrifices. The cordiality of their reception 
in England, where the knowledge of their affliir had 
preceded them, and the interest and enthusiasm with 
which they viewed everything connected with the 
strength and glory of the Church, are best shown by 
extracts from Johnson's private journal. 



26 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

December 15. — This day we arrived safe, by God's good- 
ness, at Rarasgate, in the Isle of Thanet, were kindly enter- 
tained at Capt. Lithered's house, whence we took horse and 
came to Canterbury that night, being Saturday. 

IQtli. — This day, being Sunday, Ave went to church (Dr. 
Cumberland read service) at the magnificent Cathedral of 
Canterbury, where we heard one Mr. Archer preach on the 
' story of the Ethiopian and S* Philip. . In the afternoon we 
were by mistake directed to a meeting. After which we 
viewed the ancient magnificence of the Cathedral and heard 
evening service there. 84 Ps. was sung. 

Vlth. — This day we went to service again at the cathedral, 
where we had opportunity for further view of that stately 
building, 500 feet in length, and by 275 steps we ascended 
the tower of it, where we left our names. In the afternoon 
we waited on Dean Stanhope, who was pleased to take a 
very gracious and friendly notice of us. After evening ser- 
vice we viewed the walls of the city and other instances of 
ancient magnificence. 

18fA. — This day we waited on Dr. Wilkins, one of the 
Prebendaries, — after which we went to service ; which ended, 
we took a further view of the city, especially the churches, 
walls, and Tower, then dined with Dr. Grandorgh, who 
showed us the Library of the Cathedral, etc. After evening 
service we were invited by Mr. Norris to his house, and 
spent the evening there in company with Mr. Hughes, Mr. 
Gosling, SenF and Junf, who expressed great civility and 
kindness. 

IWi. — This day we took coach and came to Rochester and 
Chatham, and there lodged. 

20th. — This day from thence by coach we came to 
London. 

2ist. — This day we provided our lodgings at Mrs. Wyld- 
man's, in Fetter Lane, after which we were at the Exchange 
and N. England Coffee House, after which we waited on 
Mr. Hay. 

23cZ. — This day, being Sunday, in the forenoon we went 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 27 

to service at the famous Cathedral of S* Paul, where we 
heard Mr, Bramston on 21 Mat. 9 v. Hosanna. In the 
afternoon we were at S' INIary's, Aldermary, where we heard 
Mr. Jno. Berrinian on 1 Tim. i. 15, with whom, after ser- 
vice, Ave conversed at Mr. Buckridge's, from whence we went 
to Mr. Hay's. 

2Uh. — This day we went to Mr. Hay's, where we had 
opportunity with Dr. Wm. Berriman, the Bishop of Lon- 
don's chaplain, from whom we had a letter to Dr. Ibbotson, 
the Abp. of Canterbury's chaplain, wherewith we went to 
Lambeth, but his Grace was indisposed. After which we 
went over from Lambeth to Westminster and viewed the 
Abbey and the Hall, and sundry ancient monuments. 

2bth. — This day, being Christmas, we went to church at 
S* Dunstan's, where we heard Dr. Jenks from 85 Ps., 10, 11, 
— " Mercy and Truth," etc., — from whom we received the 
Holy Eucharist, after which we took coach and went to dine 
with Sir Edw'd Blacket (having been invited by the Lady 
Blacket), from whence, in our return, we were at evening 
service in S* Ann's church. 

2Qth. — This day we conversed with Mr. Th. Coram. 

27f /i. — This day we were at service in the morning at 
S* Andrew's, Undershaft. Dr. Wm. Berriman read service, 
who after prayers informed us when to wait on the Abp. 

Afternoon, went to Westminster and S' James's. 

2%th. — This day we went in tlie morning to Westminster, 
where we conversed with Dr. Fr. Astry, Treasurer of S* 
Paul's, from whence we came to the N. England Coifee 
House, where we conferred with Mr. Bridger aiid others of 
our acquaintance. I was at Evening Prayer. S* Dunstan's. 

?>Oth. — This da}^ in the morning we were at service at the 
Cathedral of S* Paul, where we heard one Mr. Seagrave 
from Heb. ii. 16 — not the nature of angels. In the afternoon 
we were at the Old Jewry, where Mr. Trapp preached from 
Heb. iii. 13 — of the Deceitfulness of Sin — with whom we 
conversed afterwards. 

31s^. — This day we went with Mr. Coram through S* 



28 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

James's Park and Chelsea (where we viewed the fine Hos- 
pital) to Parsons' Green at Fulham to dine with Mr. Hall, 
who treated us very kindly and generously ; coming home, 
we saw the place of K. Charles' execution. 

January M. — This day in the morning we were intro- 
duced by Mr. Bridger to wait on Sir William Dawes, the 
L'*^ Archbishop of York, who treated us with great kindness 
and condescension, and took notice of our affair. After 
which I went to Dr. Astry and conferred with him. In the 
evening Mr. Checkley (just arrived from N. England) came 
to our lodgings to visit us.^ 

4:1)1. — This day I went in the morning to confer further 
with Dr. Astry about going to Lambeth, after which I was 
at Smithfield and S* Andrew's, Holborn, thence home, and 
read the orders and papers of the Society and the Bp. of 
Bristol's and Carlisle's sermons. 

bth. — This day in the forenoon we (attended with Mr. 
Bridger, Mr. Sanford, and other gentlemen) waited on 
Dr. W. Wake, his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, at 
his Palace at Lambeth, introduced by Dr. Ibbotson. His 
Grace treated us like a Father of the ch'h, very courteously, 
and took notice of our affair ; we returned on foot round by 
South wark, where we viewed the most ancient church and 
monastery of S* Mary Overie 

6iA. — This day (being Sunday) we were in the morning 
at S* Martin-in-the-Fields, where we were entertained with 
a most amiable and profitable sermon by Sir Wm. Dawes, 
the m.ost excellent Abp. of York, a most wonderful preacher ! 
His text. Gen. xviii. 19, — "For I know him that he will 
command," etc. Li the afternoon I was at the Cathedral of 
S' Paul, where one Mr. Bowers preached. Jno. i. 14. — 
" Full of," etc. 

7^/i. — This day we were at Dr. Lovel's at Westminster. 

1 Johnson wrote on the fly-leaf of his private journal thus: — "N. B. I speak in 
the plural number to comprehend Mr. T. Cutler and Mr. D. Brown, who were con- 
stantly my fellow-travellers.; and after Mr. Brown's death, Mr. Checkley ; and after 
his arrival, Mr. Wetmore." 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 29 

^tJi. — This day we waited on Dr. Willis, the Bishop of 
Sarum. Aftei- which we were to visit Mr. Rawlins, and dined 
at Dr. Lovel's in company with Mr. Cummin. In the even- 
ing we received Mr. Honyman's letters, and after Evening 
Prayer conferred with Mr. Hay. 

Wth. — This day we went in the morning to wait on Dr. 
Nicholson, the Bishop of Londonderry ; after which we were 
with Mr. Humphreys, the Secretary to the Society, thence 
to Mr. Massey's, from thence in the afternoon we went to 
wait on Dr. King, the Master of the Charter House, with 
whom we conferred on our affairs ; after which we viewed 
Guildhall, and spent the evening with Mr. Massey. 

Ibth. — This day, after walking about the city and con- 
versing at the N. E. Coffee House with Mr. Sanford, etc., 
we went in the afternoon (having been invited) to visit Mr. 
Dommer, a Printer by Gray's Inn (which we took a view 
of, and of the fields and walks by the way), where were Mr. 
Cambel and Mr. Whiston (Arians with whom we had a 
great deal of talk and dispute), as also Mr. Massey and Mr. 
Rawlins. 

18if A. — This day in the morning we were first with Dr. 
Astry, with whom we went (hj him introduced) before the 
Hon. Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
Parts. Sir William Dawes, Abp. of York, was in the chair, 
who with the whole body of the clergy present received us 
with a most benign aspect, and treated us with all imaginable 
kindness. From thence we went with Dr. Berriman, chap- 
lain, before Dr. Jno. Robinson, Bp. of London, who received 
VIS very graciously, and took a kind notice of our affair. 

20th. — This day (being Sunday) in the morning we were 
at S* Bride's, where we had a charity sermon from Deut. 
XV. 11, 12, preached by Dr. Th. Biss ; in the afternoon we 
were at S* Mary le Bow, where we heard Mr. Smith on 



30 LIFE AND COREESPONDENCE . 

Death, from Job xvii. 13 ; in the evenmg we conversed at 
home first with Dr. King, Master of the Chapter House 
(who gave us a kind visit), after that with Mr. Checkley 
and Dr. Jones. 

21st. — This day Mr. Brown and I were witli the Bishop 
of London, with whom we conferred further upon our affair ; 
he treated us with great benignity ; from thence we went to 
dine with Dr. Astry, who after dinner took coach with us 
and came to the Chapter House by S* Paul's, where we were 
kindly treated by the Committee of the Society, who granted 
our desire ; we spent the evening with Mr. Massey, Lewis, 
and Humphreys. 

22d. — This day, alas ! Mr. Cutler falling sick of the 
small-pox, Mr. Brown and I thought best to remove, and we 
took up our lodgings at Mr. Gregson's at the Two White 
fryars by the Bolt and Tun in Fleet Street ; after which we 
were at the Coffee House and Mr. More's. 

2Sd. — This day we were in the morning with Mr. Hay 
for his advice, from whom we went directly to the Bp. of 
London to Fulham (to his Palace), where we were kindly 
entertained by Dr. W. Berriman, with whom we had a very 
free conversation. 

25th. — This day in the morning we were at Dr. Astry's, 
with whom and Dr. Berriman we came to wait on the Society 
at Bp. Tenison's Library, who granted our requests and 
made way for our ordination. After which we were at Mr. 
Bridger's and at evening service at S* Paul's Cathedral. 

27th. — This day (being Sunday) we were in the morning 
at S* Paul's, where were present, besides the Lord Mayor 
and Aldermen, Sir Peter King and the rest of the Judges ; 
one Mr. Wheatly preached from 1 Tim. iii. 16. The mys- 
tery of godliness. In the afternoon we were at Westminster 
Abbey, where were present Sundry Bishops. One Mr. 
Mandevil preached from Matt. v. 8. Pure in heart, etc. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 31 

31s^. — This day in the morning we went to wait on Dr. 
Grandorgh, upon whose invitation we took coach with him 
and went to Westminster Hall (it being Term time), where 
we saw the several courts and judges sitting. We viewed 
likewise the Houses both of Lords and Commons. In the 
afternoon we, with Mr. Checkley, were in company with Mr. 
Hendley and Mr. Lewis, two clergymen, and Mr. Wood and 
others. 

February 1st. — This day in the afternoon we were at Mr. 
Hay's, and spent the evening at the Sun Tavern with Messrs. 
Lewis, Humphrey, Vaughan, Powel, Vincent, Wait, Scul- 
lard, etc., clergymen. 

4i7i. — This day we were to dine with Mr. Hendley at 
Islington, in company with Mr. Lewis, Mr. Checkley, and 
Mr. Wood. After we came home we were in company with 
Philips and Calwel, and read Irene, a play. 

bth. — This day we were at Sion College, where we had 
the benefit of two or three hours' use of the Library to 
examine commentators on our texts. 

6iA. — This day we were not out, but at the Theatre in 
Drury Lane in the evening, where we had a Tragedy. 

Itli. — This day in the morning we were at service at S* 
Paul's Cathedral, where Dr. Chishul preached in defense of the 
Trinity against the Arians from Matt, xxviii. 19, — " Go ye 
therefore," etc. ; after which, with Mr. Checkley, we took a 
view of that stupendous fabric, ascended to the top of the 
dome by five hundred and fifty steps, which with the Cupola 
and Cross make four hundred feet in height. We were in 
the Library also, and sundry other parts ; viewed the cells, 
etc. It is perhaps one of the finest buildings in the world — 
an amazing mass of stones ! In the evening also we were at 
service there, and afterward waited on ]\Ir. Jenningg. 

9^/j. — This day in the morning we were first with Mr. 
Dummer, the agent ; after that we went to wait on Dr. 
Grandorgh, who presented us from an unknown hand^ (whom 

1 Earl Thanet. 



32 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

God bless) with ten guineas apiece ; in the afternoon 
finished reading a book called the " Scotch Presbyterian 
Eloquence," and after that I finished composing my sermon 
for probation. 

lOtJi. — This day, being Sunday, in the morning I heard 
at S* Mary's, Aldermary, Dr. Kennet, Bp. of Peterborough, 
preach from 1 Thess. iii. 11, 12, — "Now God and the Father," 
etc. After which I saw him ordain Mr. Usher and another 
man. We dined with Mr. Negus ; in the afternoon we heard 
Dr. Watson from John i. 11, — "He came unto his own," etc. 

11th. — This day we were not out. I read Dr. Hoadly's 
Sermon on the " Kingdom of Christ," and his " Preserva- 
tive Against Non-jurors," with Snape's and Law's answer. 

12th. — This day in the morning we were at service at the 
church of S* Lawrence Jewry, where Dr. Moss, Dean of Ely, 
preached a Lecture from Rom. iii. 8, — " Let us do evil," etc. 
Afternoon we were at the Cojffiee House N. E., and in the 
evening we were at the Theatre at Lincoln's Lm, where we 
had a Comedy — The Drummer. N. B. — This same day 
after dinner we visited the good people of Bedlam. 

13iA. — This day we were not out, but I read Dr. Wood- 
ward's " Young Man's Monitor," and wrote letters to my 
friends in N. England. 

15th. — This day we were at the anniversary meeting of 
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel at S* Mary le 
Bow, where Dr. J. Waugh, Dean of Gloucester, preached 
from 1 Pet. iii. 19, 20, — The spirits in prison, etc. We 
were at evening service at S* Paul's, and in the evening I 
was at the Sun Tavern Club, where, besides those who were 
there before, were Messrs. Hill, Bridger, Lewis, and another 
or two. 

20th. — This day in the morning we were at service at 
Westminster Abbey, after which we went to visit Mr. More, 
a young clergyman, on the affair of Baptism ; he was very 
courteous. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 33 

24:tJi. — This day, being Sunday, we were at service all 
day at S* Dunstan's, West ; in the morning Dr. John Wilcox, 
Bishop of Gloucester, preached from 1 Pet. iv. 10, — " As 
every man hath received," etc. Afternoon, Dr. Natli. ]\Iar- 
sliall preached on Matt. xix. 14, — " For of such," etc. 

21th. — This day (being Ash Wednesday) we were at 
service at S' James', Clerkenwell, where Dr. Jno. Potter, 
Bishop of Oxford, preached from 2 Cor. i. 12, — "For our 
rejoicing is this," etc. We dined with Dr. Massey. 

March 2. — This day not out but to buy books. We saw 
a wondrous clock that performed all sorts of music. 

Sd. — This day (being Sunday) we were in the morning 
at S' Andrew's, Undershaft, or S"^ Mary Ax, where Dr. 
Wm. Berriman preached from Jer. xiii. 23, — " Can the 
Ethiopian," etc. ; in the afternoon at S' Martins, Ludgate, 
where Mr. Crow preached from Luke xiii. 5, — "I tell you. 
Nay ; but, except," etc. 

• 4:th. — This day we heard Esquire Boyle's Lecture at S* 
Mary le Bow preached by Dr. Burrough from Phil. iii. 8, — 
" Yea, doubtless, and I count," etc. After that we took a 
walk with Mr. Jno. Berriman, Mr. Scullard, and Mr. Wats, 
through Moorfields out to Ash Hospital, and so out of town 
through the pleasant meadows. In the evening received a 
visit from Mr. David Yale. 

5th. — This day we went to Kensington to confer with 
Dr. Berriman ; we were admitted to my Lord of London ; 
there we dined ; after which we drank a bottle with the 
Doctor and Secretary, and then viewed the Royal Palace and 
Gardens. 

In the evening at S' Paul's, at Sir Christopher Wren's 
funeral. Statues. 

'Jth. — This day we were at service at S* Paul's, where 
Dr. Chishul preached again against the Arians in defense of 
the Holy Trinity from Matt, xxviii. 19. It was his fourth 
3 



34 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Lecture. After that we waited on Dr. Knight to confer on 
the affair of Baptism. He treated us very kindly. We vis- 
ited Buckridge. 

^th. — This day in the morning we were at service at S* 
Paul's, where one Mr. Bearcroft preached from 2 Pet. i. 10, 
— Calling and election, etc. I came home and read Dr. 
Delaune's sermon on Original Sin, Whiston's argument about 
the validity of ministries and the appendices, and the spirit 
of some late writers about the Bishop of Rochester's com- 
mitment. 

'dth. — This day we were at service in the morning at 
Westminster Abbey with Mr. Checkley, with whom after- 
wards we went to confer with Dr. Knight on the affair of 
Baptism, and (nobis tribus an legitimum sit apud Presby- 
terianos Baptisma susceptum graviter dubitantibus) hora 4 
pomeridiana in ecclesia Sancti Sepulchri, Testibus Dom. 
Johanne Jones, Isaaco Cardel, et Dom. Dorothea Nightingale 
et ministrante Jeremia Nicholsono, Doctori Knight, curato 
privatum, Baptisma hypotheticum recepimus. Si rectum 
hoc, Deus agnoscat, et si alitercum sit simpliciter actum 
ignoscat. ^ 

llth. — This day we heard Mr. Usher at St. Antholin's, 
after which Mr. Lazingby invited us to his house with Mr. 
Oliver and Mr. Scullard, etc., clergymen ; then we with Mr. 
Checkley took coach and went to Hampstead to wait on Mr. 
Cutler home, who (I thank God) is recovered. We walked 
about to view that town, and then returned and went to 
the Theatre at Lincoln's Lm, where we had the comedy of 
the Merchant. 

13^7j. — This day we went to Mr. Bridger's, and from 
thence to Kensington to confer with my Lord of London on 

1 We three, having grave doubts whether Baptism received among the Presby- 
terians is valid, at 4 o'clock p. m. in the church of St. Sepulchre — Mr. John Jones, 
Isaac Cardel, and Mrs. Dorothy Nightingale being witnesses, and Jeremiah Nichol- 
son, curate to Dr. Knight, ministering — received private hypothetical baptism. If 
this be right, may God approve it ; and if otherwise than sincerely done, may He 
pardon it. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 35 

the affair of ordination. We drank a bottle with Dr. Berri- 
man, Mr. Sherlock, etc., and had letters to the Archbishop 
of Canterbury ; in our return were in the Royal Gardens. 

14i/i. — This day in the morning we first waited on Gov- 
ernor Shute and then on the Earl of Clarendon at Somerset 
House. After that we were at prayers at S* Stephen's, 
Coleman Street, Avhere Mr. Hay catechised and preached a 
lecture on the Catechism ; in the afternoon we were at ]\Ir. 
Bowyer's, the Bookseller, with whom we drank a bottle ; 
after that we went up to the top of the glorious Cathedral 
of S* Paul and viewed the town. 

18^/i. — This day I was at Kensington to confer with Dr. 
Berriman on the affair of ordination, by whose application 
to tlie Bishop of London, and by order from William, Lord 
Apb. of Canterbury, we had letters dimissory to Thomas, 
Lord Bp. of Norwich. Li the evening I read the " Modern 
Protestant." 

Idth. — This day in the morning we went to wait on the 
Right Reverend Dr. Thomas Green, the Bishop of Norwich, 
for ordination, who received us favorably. Thence we went 
to see Mr. Rawlins and Lady Blacket. After that we were 
at the N. England Coffee House. 

20th. — This day in the morning we were to wait on Mr. 
Jennings to discourse on our affairs ; from thence we went 
to wait on the Bishop of Norwich, who examined us in order 
for ordination, which also did Mr. Ellotson, the gentleman 
who is to present us ; then we signed the Articles. After- 
noon we were at S' Sepulchre, where Mr. Brown and I with 
Mrs. Dorothy were witnesses for Mr. Cutler at his baptism. 
After that we were about town to provide robes, etc., for 
ordination. 

21st. — This day we were before the Society at the Arch- 
bishop's Library at S* Martin's upon our affairs, and were in 
the evening at the Half-moon Tavern, Cheapside, with the 
gentlemen of the club before mentioned, besides whom were 
others 



36 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

22(i. — This day in the morning, 10 of the clock, we 
waited on the Right Rev'^ Thomas, Lord Bishop of Norwich, 
and at the parish church of S*^ Martin-in-the-Fields, after 
morning Prayer, we were first confirmed and then ordained 
Deacons. In the afternoon I was at Prayers at S* Paul's, 
and then at Mr. Jonah Bowyer's, Bookseller. 

24:th. — This day (being Sunday) we were all day at S*' 
James's Church, where in the morning Dr. Samuel Clark 
preached from Heb. xii. 16, 17, — of Esau's selling his birth- 
right. Afternoon, Dr. Ibbotson preached from Luke ix. 23, — 
"Let him deny himself," etc. In the evening I finished 
Abp. Dawes, etc., sermons. 

2Qth. — This day we had the honor to dine again with 
Dr. Francis Astry, and spent the afternoon at his house, with 
Mr. Carter, a clergyman, our benefactor. After that we 
waited on Dr. Nath. Marshall, with whom Ave drank a bottle 
in company with Dr. Grey and Mr. Wheatly, clergymen, 
and Mr. Martin and Dr. Walker, in both which conversa- 
tions we had great kindness. 

28iA. — This day we were in the morning to wait on the 
Bishop of Norwich. Afternoon we were at Clerkenwell ; 
from thence we went with Mr. Checkley to see the Tower, 
where we viewed the armory, both horse and foot, the artil- 
lery and regalia, and the trophies of Sir Francis Drake, and 
everything to be seen there ; after that Ave ascended the 
monument, one hundred and tAvo feet high, by three hun- 
dred and forty-five steps. Glorious things ! 

29itli. — This day in the morning I was at service at S* 
Clement Danes, where Mr. R. Leybourn preached from Job 
vii. 16, — "I Avoidd not live ahvay," etc. Otherwise not out. 

oOtli. — This day in the morning we were to wait on "the 
Bishop of NorAvich, whose chaplain, Mr. Clark, examined 
us. The Bishop gave us his fatherly advice, and we sub- 
scribed the XXXIX. Articles, in order for ordination. We 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON.- 37 

dined and spent the day with Mr. Dumnier in company 
with Mr. INIassey and Mr. Low. 

31st. — This day at 6 in the morning, Sunday, at the 
church of S' Martin-in-the-Fields, at the continued appoint- 
ment and desire of WilUam, Lord Abp. of Canterbur}^ and 
John, Lord Bishop of London, we were ordained Priests 
most gravely by the Right Rev*^ Thomas, Lord Bp. of Nor- 
wich, who afterwards preached an excellent sermon from 
Rom. ii. 4, — " Or despisest thou," etc. I dined with Mr. 
Massey in company with Mr. Godly and Mr. Bull, clergy- 
men. Afternoon I preached for Mr. Massey at S* Alban's, 
Wood Street, on Phil. i. 27. We all spent the evening with 
Mr. Low. 

April 1. — This day in the morning we were at the 
Bishop of Norwich's house with the Secretary for our orders. 
Afternoon we were at S* Paul's Chapter House and the 
Chapter Coffee House. 

3t^. — This day we dined with Mr. Carter (our benefactor), 
with whom we took coach and came into town. We spent 
the evening at Mr. Massey's with Mr. Price. 

The errand on which Johnson and his associates 
appeared in England served as an introduction to 
remarkable persons and places. Wherever they went 
they were sure to be welcomed ; and the interest 
evinced in their entertainment was only exceeded by 
the desire to send them back to their country pre- 
pared to meet the new responsibilities laid upon them, 
and to engage in a struggle which they could hardly 
hope to avoid- with the steady foes of Episcopacy. 



38 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 



CHAPTER III. 

SICKNESS AND DEATH OF MK. BROWN; FURTHER EXTRACTS FROM 
PRIVATE journal; VISITS TO OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE; 
ARRIVAL OF MR. "VVETMORE ; DEPARTURE FROM ENGLAND, AND 
VOYAGE HOME ; SETTLEMENT AT STRATFORD ; LETTERS TO 
THE BISHOP OF LONDON ; MARRIAGE. 

A. D. 1723-172T. 

The dreadful malady from which Mr. Cutler had 
just recovered now fell upon another member of the 
party. On Thursday, the 4th of April, Brown com- 
plained of being ill; and two days later his disease 
was pronounced to be the small-pox. " God grant 
him," entered Johnson in his diary, " a safe deliver- 
ance ; " and the same day he removed his own quar- 
ters to an apothecary in the next door. He does not 
appear to have thought it imprudent to remain so 
near, or he was so anxious to learn each day the 
progress of the disease, and the signs of its yielding 
to treatment, that he could not think of being at a 
distance from his friend. Edward Jenner was not yet 
born, and hence his great discovery of vaccination 
as a preventive of the small-pox was unknown to the 
medical profession. Individuals were then subject 
to it in its worst form in the natural way, and inocu- 
lation was sometimes resorted to as a means of escap- 
ing its virulence, and securing a more speedy and 
perfect recovery. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON". 39 

For nearly a week Johnson went in and ont of his 
new quarters visiting noted places, and mingling with 
his clerical friends. On the 7th of April, it being 
Palm Sunday, he was at the Ro^^al Chapel, S' James's 
Palace, where he saw the King, George the Prince, 
the Princess, and sundry bishops and persons of the 
nobility. Dr. W. Wake, Abp. of Canterbury, preached 
from Luke xiii. 6-9, — The barren fig-tree. He ap- 
plied it to the present state of the nation. It is 
evident that the symptoms in the case of Brown had 
not become alarming. A few quotations from the 
journal of Johnson will best tell the story : — 

April 9. — This day I was first at Child's Coffee House. 
We dined at the Cross Keys in Holborn with Mr. Ham- 
mond, in company with Mr. Massey and thirty English 
gentlemen. I wrote to my friends in tlie evening. 

IQth. — This day we were at S* James's, ClerkenweU, 
where we heard Dr. Sherlock, Dean of Chichester, preach 
from Isaiah liii. 3, on " Christ's sufferings." Afternoon I 
was at the N. E. Coffee House with Mr. Sandford, and spent 
the evening (after evening service at S* Foster's) ^ with Mr. 
Berriman and INIr. Scullard at Coach Makers' Hall. 

11th. — This day we were at Whitehall Chapel at service, 
to see the ceremony of washing the disciples' feet performed, 
being Maundy Thursday. Afterwards we met Mr. Oliver at 
the New England Coffee House, who went with us to wait 
on Mr. Tryon, the Treasurer, where we saw Mr. More. In 
the evening I removed my lodgings to Mr. Skinner's. 

12th. — This day being Good Friday, we were at service 
at the Royal Chapel at S' James's, where Dr. Stanhope, 
Dean of Canterbury, preached an excellent sermon from 
John i. 29, — " Behold the Lamb of God," etc. I was at 
evening prayers at S* Martin's, Ludgate. 

1 In another place Johnson speaks of " S' Foster's, alias Vedast." The reference 
is to S' Veclast's Church, Foster Lane, built by Wren, with a three storied spire, 
and still in use as a parish church. 



40 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

I'^th. — This day, thinking Mr. Brown a little better, Mr. 
Cutler, Mr. Manning, and I, went to Greenwich, where we 
were on board the Royal Carolina ; there viewed the glorious 
Hospital, then the Palace, the Park, and Royal Observatory, 
and after that Mr. Crawley's Iron Ware House. But woe 
is me ! alas ! alas ! on our return we are accosted with the 
sorrowful news of Mr. Brown's death. O Father, not my 
will, but thine be done ! O my grief I I have lost in him 
the best friend in the world, — a fine scholar, and a brave 
Christian. It is thy will, O God ; let me be silent, and shut 
my mouth. But my flesh trembles for fear of Thee, and I 
am afraid of thy righteous judgments. O give me grace to 
be resigned, and to get good by it. O prepare his friends 
for the news, and comfort them. O save and spare me, if it 
may be thy will, for Christ's sake. 

l^th. — This day being Easter Sunday, Mr. Checkley and 
I were at S' Paul's Cathedral, where we had a sermon, from 
Rev. i. 17-18, — "I am he that was dead, and am alive," 
etc. We received the Holy Communion from the hands of 
Dean Younger, Mr. Baker, and Mr. Carleton. Afternoon 
we were at S* Alban's, Wood Street, where Mr. Massey 
preached from Is. liii. 10, — " When thou shalt make his soul 
an offering," etc. With him we went home, and there I 
lodged that night. 

Ibth. — This day I was at service at S* John's Chapel, 
Clerkenwell ; thence to Lady Blaket's and Dr. Astry's. 
After that I went to Mr. Berriman's, who with Mr. Scullard, 
and Mr. Wats and other lay gentlemen, went with me to 
divert me out into the fields and meadows to the new bury- 
ing place, where I saw Mr. Nelson's tomb ; thence to Dr. 
Marshall's and Dr. Astry's ; thence to Whitehall, whence 
we went by water to Mr. Scullard's, where we spent the 
evening. There I lodged. 

IQth. — This morning Mr. Scullard went with me to see 
the wine vaults and water works. After that I was at 
S* Bride's to hear the Spital sermon preached by Dean 
Waugh from 1 Cor. xiii. 13, — The greatest, charity. The 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 41 

children sang wonderfully. This evening my dear friend, 
Mr. Brown, was interred in S'' Dunstan in the West, at- 
tended by about thirty of the clergy of the town. 

These extracts show the depth of Johnson's sorrow 
at the death of his classmate and companion. The 
constantly changing scenes through which he- passed 
could not put it from his mind. It was the one great 
disappointment of his journey, and he often referred 
to it afterwards with feelings of affectionate sadness. 
When human props fall from under us it is a comfort 
to be able to lean upon divine supports, and to do 
wdiat is imposed upon us with increased laith and 
diligence. This was the privilege of tlie survivor who 
mourned so deeply the loss of his gentle and loving 
friend. 

The private journal of Johnson carries us back a 
century and a half, and brings to view now and then 
manners and customs which seem strange to many at 
the present day. The frequent gathering of clergy- 
men at cofiee houses and clubs was among the social 
habits of the time, and as little was thought of ac- 
quaintances meeting at the " Vine Tavern " for a 
literary feast, as would now be thought of a party of 
travellers stopping at an inn and asking for refresh- 
ment and lodgings for the night. The reader will be 
glad to have introduced more of the notes of the sub- 
ject of this volume. They are brief, and wTitten 
without any attempt at rhetoric or fine description ; 
but the simple words are graphic, and present a 
lively picture of what the writer saw and heard : — 

April 21. — This day being Sunday I preached my proba- 
tion sermon on Phil. i. 27, at S* Dionis Back Church, in 
Fenchurch Street, before Dr. Smith and Mr. Hay, members 
of the Society. We dined at Mr. Bridger's with the clergy- 



42 LIFE AND CORKESrONDENCE 

man, his brother. After dinner we took coach to Trinity 
Chapel, in Hanover Square, where I preached the same be- 
fore sundry persons of quahty. We spent the evening at the 
Dean of Ely's, Dr. Moss, with the two Finches, Mr. Finch 
and the Dean of York, and Mr. Massey and Mr. CoUens. 

22cZ. — This day I read Morning Prayers for Dr. Polling 
at S* Ann's; in the afternoon we walked in Lincoln's Inn 
Fields, were a considerable time in the Library, and at 
Evening Prayers in the Chapel, and after that at S' 
Foster's ; thence to Moorfields, where we saw a remarkable 
gun which went off eleven times in a minute ; spent the 
evening with Mr. Wheatly, Berriman, Scullard, and the 
other company, at Mr. Kodden's. 

2od. — This day in the morning we went to drink a dish 
of tea with Mr. Collens, a very worthy clergyman ; after 
that we were at Lincoln's Inn, thence to John's Coffee 
House in Swithin's Lane, with sundry clergymen; then at 
N. England Coffee House with Mr. Harrison ; after that we 
waited on Dr. Barrowby, a worthy gentleman, our physician ; 
we spent the evening at the Vine Tavern with Messrs. Ber- 
riman, Lewis, Scullard, Higgot, Champion, Brigen, Wait, 
Vaughan, Rice, and Bp. Bradford's son. 

24i/^. — This day in the morning we visited Mrs. Kitty 
Lock wood, and then Mr. Rawden ; after that we were at 
Morning Prayers at Lincoln's Inn ; thence we took a walk 
in S' James's Park, and dined with Dr. Astry. We were at 
Evening Prayers at S* Foster's, and spent the evening at Mr. 
Jno. Berriman's with Mr. Wheatly, Mr. Wait, and the other 
gentlemen. 

29i7?.. — This day in the morning we waited on Dr. Ed- 
mund Gibson, Lord Bishop of London, lately advanced, who 
treated us very kindly ; thence we were at Court 

30i/i. — This morning we were at Westminster Abbey, 
where we viewed the cloisters and monuments, and by Mr. 
Church's means saw the school and dormitory, as also Abp. 
Laud's own handwriting, and the original names and war- 
rant of the Regicides. We dined with Mr. Tru.by and Mr. 



OF SAMUEL JOHXSON. 43 

Bowyer ; then we were at Mr. Downing's, thence to wait on 
Dr. Bennet, \vith whom we spent the evening. 

May 1. — This day in the morning we were at Mr, 
ScuUarcrs, with wliorn we went to Mr. Clonclon's, who con- 
ducted us to Gresham College to Dr. Woodward's, thence to 
the work house, thence we went to prayers at S* Mildred's, 
Poultry. Mr. Scullard read j^rayers. Thence we went to 
John's Coffee House in company with sundry clergymen. 
We dined at Mr. Tryon's ; after that we were at Mr. 
Bowyer's with Dr. Snape and Dr. Colebatch, and waited on 
Sub-Dean Gosling ; were at Chapter Coffee House with Dr. 
Grey and Mr. Wheatly. Supped at the Old Devil Tavern 
with Mr. Planning and Mr. Wood. 

''Id. — This day I was at Mr. Checkley's ; then we were all 
at Dr. Grey's and Dr. Marshall's, with whom we spent the 
evening. Read Dr. Woodward's remarks on the ancient and 
present state of London. 

2>d. — This day we dined with Dr. Woodward at Gresham 
College, who showed us his fine collection of rarities, of 
animals, minerals, antediluvian shells, Roman urns, and other 
antiquities of 2 or 3000 years. After that Mr. Wilraer 
showed us his collection of plants. We spent the evening at 
Mr, Berriman's ; I finished Dr. Berriman's sermon at Induc- 
tion. 

Ath. — This day I was at my Lord Mayor's with Messrs. 
Rawden, Chapman, and Pope, thence to S* Mary-le-Bow, at 
the confirmation of Dr. Edmund Gibson, Bp. of London ; we 
dined at Mr. Carter's with Dr. Moss, Dean of Ely, who took 
us into his coach and brought us to Holborn, and thence we 
went to Mr. Jenks', with whom we conversed, and after that 
with Mr. ]Middleton. 

bth. — This day being Sunday I read prayers at S* 
Michael, Queenhithe. Mr. Estwick preached from 1 Pet. ii. 
21, on " Christ's example," I assisted in the administration 
of the Sacrament. We dined at Mr. Scullard's ; for him I 
preached at S* Antholin's ; afterwards we were .... at 
Dr. Baile's ; thence we went to S* Ann's, where Mr. Cutler 



44 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

preached for Mr. Wheatly on Eccl. xii. 13, 14, — " Fear 
God," etc. With him we dined. 

Qth. — This day I was at Mr. Bowyer's, where I saw the 
Bishop of Rochester as he came from tlie Tower to the House 
of Lords ; thence we went to Dr. Grey's, and we dined with 
Mr. Rawden in company with jMr. Abbot and Mr. Jenner. 

"th. — This day we Iieard Dr. Roderick preach a Latin 
sermon at Sion College from these words : " He that endiireth 
to the end shall be saved." After which we dined there in 
company with about fifty of the clergy convened on that 
occasion. After that we went over the river with Mr. Scul- 
lard and viewed S* Saviour's Church, i. e. S* Mary Overie's, 
and then the water works, and spent the evening at the 
Vine with our former acquaintances. 

iitli. — This day we took horses and went in company 
with Mr. Waterman to Harrow-on-the-Hill, to wait on Mr. 
Cox, with whom we dined, and after that we went to Eton 
and Windsor. 

^tli. — This day we visited the Castle and Palace at 
Windsor, and after that we went to Hampton Court, and 
saw the fine palaces there, in both which glorious places we 
saw everything curious, magnificent, or entertaining, and then 
returned this evening to London. 

llth. — This day we were first at Mr. Bowyer's to see the 
Bishop of Rochester go by ; thence we went to Court, thence 
to Dr. Grey's, and spent the evening with Mr. Berriraan, 
Scullard, East, etc. 

IWi. — This day, Sunday, I heard Dr. Thomas Wilson, 
the Bishop of Sodor and Man, preach from Mar. xii. 32-34, — 
Of the love of God, — at S* Vedast Foster's. We dined at 
Mr. Scate's. Afternoon I preached before that Bishop for 
Mr. Berriman at S' Mary's, Aldermary. After service we 
were at Mr, Scate's again with the Bishop. After that Mr. 
Berriman and I went to the Tower, and we spent the evening 
at Mrs. Parker's. 

13M. — This day we went with Dr. Grey to view Sion 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 45 

College Library, where we saw John Wickliff's Bible, original 
manuscript, then we went to Moorfields. After dinner we 
were at 'Change, we were at the Chapter House and Coffee 
House with Dr. Lang and Mr. Oliver, we spent the evening 
in visiting Walter Newbury, a Quaker countryman ; finished 
Mr. Vvlieatly's Tract of " Bidding Prayer." 

14ith. — This day we heard Dr. Moss, Dean of Ely, at S' 
Lawrence Jewry, preach on the Eternity of Hell Torments, 
— Matt. XXV, ult., — with whom and about twenty clergy- 
men we were at the Coffee House afterwards ; we spent the 
afternoon at Mr. Truby's with Mr. Oliver, Dr. Jones, and 
one or two clergymen. 

15t7i. — This day we were first to wait on Dr. Marshall, 
who (being the King's chaplain) introduced us into the 
Palace of S* James, where we were at prayers with the 
young Princesses, and had the honor to kiss their hands. 
We dined there with the King's chaplain, and after that went 
home with Dr. iVIarshall, and waited on the Dean of Ely and 
Dr. Grey. 

IQth. — This day we were at S* Paul's Cathedral, at the 
Installation of Edmund, Bishop of London, performed by 
Dr. Bowers, Bp. of Chichester, and the whole chapter. Af- 
ternoon we were there again at service, after tliat with Mr. 
Negus, after that at S' Foster's, and went with Mr. Berri- 
man to the Tower, and spent the evening with him and Mr. 
Garden. 

lltli. — This day in the morning we waited on Dr. Astry ; 
thence we went to Tyburn to see Counselor Layer hanged. 

19th. — This day I read prayers in the morning at S* 
Magnus for Mr. Scullard, with whom I dined. Afternoon 
I preached before Dr. Waddington [afterwards Bishop of 
Chichester] at All Hallows the Great for Dr. Berriman. 
After service we were at Mr. Shaler's with Mr. Berriman 
and Mr. Scullard ; thence to Mr. Checkley's, and spent the 
evening with Mr. Webster. 

20th. — This day we took coach and came to Oxford, and 
lodged at the Angel Inn. 



46 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

21st. — This day first we waited on Dr. Sliippen, tlie Vice- 
Chancellor at Brasen Nose College ; thence we went to Trin- 
ity College, where Mr. Stockwell showed us the fine gardens 
and Chapel of the College. We dined with Dr. Shippen, 
V. C, and thence we waited on Mr. Trognair, Green, and 
Atkinson of Queen's College, with whom and the rest of the 
Fellows we supped in the Hall and saw the Chapel and 
Library, and spent the rest of the evening. 

22d. — This day we went first to Pembroke College to 
wait on Dr. Painting and Mr. Lockton, who showed us the 
gardens ; thence we went to Magdalen College, where we 
dined with Mr. Warton (and the Fellows), who after a little 
conversation went with us to the famous Bodleyan Library, 
which we viewed, and the Antiquity and Picture Galleries ; 
thence to the glorious Theatre and Printing House ; thence 
to Trinity College to wait on Dr. Dobson, Mr. Ball, and Mr. 
Stockwell ; here we were at Evening Prayers ; thence we 
went to Corpus Christi College to wait on Mr. Bar. Smith, 
who showed us the gardens, library, manuscripts, and chapel 
of that College ; after, removed lodgings to Mr. Barnes. 

2Sd. — This day (being Ascension day) we went to wait 
on Mr. Conybeare of Exeter College, who went with us to 
Christ Church, the Cathedral, where Mr. Wyat preached 
before the University. 

24th. — This day we were first at Queen's College with 
Mr. Trognair ; thence we went to Merton to wait on Mr. 
Moseley ; thence to Trinity College to dine with Dr. Dob- 
son, President, who brought us into the schools where Dr. 
Potter, Bp. of Oxford, was Moderator to a Theological Dis- 
pute on Baptism and Prayers for the Dead ; thence we 
went with Mr. Atkinson to the Printing House and the 
Museum, where we saw all the curiosities of the air-pump 
and other engines, the skeletons, mummies, medals, jewels, 
antiquities, etc 

25th. — This day in the morning we were at prayers at 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 47 

Queen's College ; thence, accompanied by Mr. Smith of S* 
John's, we went first to Oriel College, thence to Corpus 
Christi, thence to Christ's Church, where we saw the ancient 
monuments, painting on the glass, etc. 

2%th. — This day (being Sunday) we were at service at 
Queen's College Chapel, and thence to S* Mary's Cliurch, 
where Mr. Owen preached on Christ's Ascension, — S' 
Mar. ult., — " He was received up into heaven," etc. We 
dined at Dr. Shippen's, V. Ch., with Dr. Delaune and Mr. 
Leybourne, etc., where we received our Diplomas for the 
Degrees. After that we walked in the fields, and were at 
evening service at S* John's College, where cxxxix. Ps. was 
sung. We spent the evening at Corpus Christi College in 
company with Mr. Smith, Aylmer, Burton, etc. 

21th. — This day we went with Mr. B. Smith to see the 
Bodleyan Library, the medals and antiquities, the manu- 
scripts and curiosities of that glorious structure ; thence wo 
went to the Vice-Chancellor's, whence we had the honor to 
ride in his coach in company with Dr. Delaune, President of 
S* John's College, and Dr. Dobson. President of Trinity, to 
Cuddesdon, to wait on Dr. Jno. Potter, Bishop of Oxford, 
who treated us with the utmost civility. With hiin we had 
the honor to dine and spend the afternoon, and after our 
return we spent the evening with Dr. Delaune. 

28i/i. — This day we first waited on Dr. Francis Gastrel, 
Bp. of Chester ; then we dined with JMr. Conybeare at Exeter 
College ; thence we took horses and rode out to see the 
famous seat of the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim, in 
company with Mr. Burton and Mr. Greenaway — a most 
magnificent structure, gardens, and bridge. We spent the 
evening with Burton. 

29^/i. — This day being Restauration, we were at church at 
S* Mary's, where Dr. Felton, Principal of Edmund Hall, 
preached on Ps. 50, — Offer unto God thanksgiving, — an 
excellent sermon ; then we had the honor to dine with Dr. 
Gastrel, Bp. of Chester. Afternoon we were with our ac- 



48 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

quaintance at Corpus Cliristi, where we supped with the 
Fellows in the Hall ; with them we walked in the fields, 
and spent the evening with Mr. Greenaway at Hart Hall, 
having been before at Queen's. 

oOth. — This day we went first to wait on the learned Mr. 
Sam^ Parker ; thence to S* M. Magdalene, where Mr. Dud- 
ley Woodbridge showed us the Park, President's garden, 
.... etc. ; thence we went to Edmund Hall and took our 
leave of Dr. Felton ; thence to the public Schools and Con- 
vocation House, where was a congregation, and the Yice- 
Chancellor gave degrees to some gentlemen ; we dined with 
the FelloAvs of Queen's College and took our leave of them ; 
then of Dr. Dobson and the Fellows of Trinity, then of the 
Vice- Chancellor, and then of Dr. Delaune and Dr. Haywood 
at S* John's. We. spent our evening with sundry gentlemen 
at Mr. Blathwait's, and thus we take our leave of Oxford. 

Slst. — This day we took coach and came to London. 

Their return to the metropolis, after an absence of 
ten days, was followed by the renewal of civilities 
to their friends, and preparations for a visit to Cam- 
bridge. 

June 3. — This day we were first at Westminster to wait 
on Edmund, Bp. of London, who treated us very kindly ; 
thence at Whitehall, now Banqueting House ; thence I went 
to Mr. Downing's, thence to N. E. Coffee House and wrote 
home. We dined with Mrs. Cardel, Avere at Evening Prayers 
at S* Foster's, and spent the evening at the Queen s Head 
with Messrs. Wheatly, Ryan, Berriman, Jebb, and Wag- 
staff a nonjuring clergyman. 

Qth. — This day (being Thursday in Whitsun week) Ave 
first drank a dish of tea witli Mr. Berriman, with whom we 
went to Gresham College, where the charity children meet, 
whence, in company with a great number of the clergy, we 
Avent in procession before the children to S* Sepulchre's, 
where there Avas a sermon preached on the occasion by Dr. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 49 

Waterland, from Prov. xxii. 7, — " Train up," etc. The cliil- 
dren, to the number of 4 or 5,000, sung gloriously — the 
finest emblem of heaven in the world. 

"itli. — This day we took coach and came to Cambridge. 

Here the same kind attentions were bestowed upon 
them as in Oxford. They first paid their respects to 
the heads of several of the colleges, and visited King 
Henry's Chapel and the Library of Trinity. Johnson 
continues his notes : — 

'dth. — This day (being Trinity Sunday) we were in the 
morning to drink a dish of tea with Dr. Laney at Pembroke, 
with whom we went to service at S* Mary's Church, where 
Mr. Trotter preached from Luke xxi. 15, — " Give a mouth 
and wisdom," etc. We dined -with Dr. Ashton at Jesus Col- 
lege, were afternoon at S* Mary's again, where Mr. Pearce 
preached from S* John xiv. 16, — "I will pray," etc. We 
were at evening service at Trinity College Chapel, where 
was fine music ; we supped at Trinity Hall 

lOth. — This day we first drank a dish of tea with Di . 
R. Jenkins, Master of S* John's College ; after that we were 
to see the Pictures, Library, and curiosities there ; thence we 
waited on Dr. Middleton, Prof, bibliothecarum, who showed 
us the Royal Library given by K. George ; thence we went 
to dine with Dr. Dickens, in company with Dr. Warren, Mr. 
Oldsworth, and Dr. Berriman ; thence we all went to Em- 
anuel College, were there at evening service, and in the gal- 
lery and library and gardens. We supped and spent the 
evening with Mr. Marshall. 

11^/i. — This day we went in the morning to wait on Mr. 
Mickleborough of Bennet or Corpus Christi, whence we went 
to church at S* Mary's, where Mr. Fosset preached a Latin 
sermon on Church discipline from 1 Cor. v. 2. We went to 
the congregation where the Vice-chancellor, Dr. Cross (in 
the room of Dr. Snape, absent), with the rest of the Doctors 
and jNLasters sat, and we mth others received our Degrees, 
pro for7na. After that we dined with the Vice-chancellor 
4 



50 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

in company with Dr. Laney, the two Proctors, and Mr 
Beadle ; thence we were at congregation again, where sun- 
dry others were graduated. After that we went to Trin- 
ity College, and were there at evening service and in the 
Library, and waited on Mr. Pilgrim, Greek Professor ; we 
spent the evening at Jesus College with Mr. Lucas and 
Harding. 

12th. — This day we went first to Bennet College Library, 
where we saw Abp. Parker's donation to that College, his 
plate, ancient manuscripts, and particularly the instrument 
of his consecration and the handwriting of the first Reform- 
ers, etc. We dined at S' John's with Dr. Jenkins, and then 
went to Caius College to wait on Mr. Symson, and conversed 
there with sundry gentlemen ; saw the Chapel and library ; 
thence we went to the Coffee House, and conversed with Mr. 
Baker and Dr. Middleton, etc. We spent the evening at 
Mr. Symson's in company with Mr. Burroughs and Mr. San- 
derson, the Blind Mathematical Professor — a prodigy. 

\A.th. — This day we went in the morning to C. C. C. C. 
to drink a dish of tea with Mr. Mickleborough, thence to 
church to S* Mary's, where we had a sermon in Latin by 
Dr. Hall on the text, — " The disciples werefirst called Chris- 
tians," etc. We dined at Jesus with Mr. Harding ; thence 
we went to Magdalen and Peterhouse, and to wait on Mr. 
Marshall at Emanuel, and to take our leave of Dr. Laney, Dr. 
Cross, Mr. Pilgrim, and Mr. Lawson, and spent the evening, 
with Dr. Dickens, Dr. Warren, Mr. Nichols, and Mr. Mar- 
shall, and thus we take our leave of Cambridge. 

Ibth. — This day we took coach and came up to London 
in company with Dr. Bentley. 

The journeys to Oxford and Cambridge were the 
longest which they made out of London, after their 
arrival in that city. It was no part of their plan to 
travel into other counties of England, and they saw 
nothing of Scotland or Ireland. Besides the four 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 51 

days at Canterbury, the ten at Oxford, and the seven 
at Cambridge, the whole time of their sojourn was 
passed in London. The little book of private notes 
is nearly ended, and the entries now begin to show 
preparations for the homeward voyage. 

June \Wi. — This day (being Sunday) we were in the 
morning at S' Foster's, where the Bp. of Man preached on 
Mar. xii. 32-3, — " The love of our neighbor." Afternoon I 
was at S* Austin's. 

Will, — This day we waited first on the Bp. of London, 
then after dinner took a walk to Islington with Mr. Clendon, 
Berriman, and Cliampion ; on our return we went to see the 
great fire that happened that day, and spent the evening 
with INIr. Wheatly. 

18^/i. — This day we first waited on Dr. Snape, Vice- 
chancellor of Cambridge ; then on Dr. Knight. We spent 
the afternoon with Mr. Phillips in seeing Sir John Parsons' 
Brewhouse and the Tower, and in company with Capt. 
Ruggles and Mr. Hooper at N. E. Coffee House. N. B. — I 
lodge now at Mr. jNlanning's — apothecary. 

19iA. — This day we were first to drink a dish of tea with 
Dr. Berriman and his brother, then about sundry private 
affairs, and at John's Coffee House with sundry clergymen. 

21s^. — This day we were first to wait on Mr. Jennings, 
then before the Society de Propaganda at S* Martin's 
Library, then before the Bp. of London with Dr. Berriman. 
We spent the evening with the good Dean of Ely and Dr. 
Grey. 

22cif. — .... I moved lodgings to Mr. Budd's, the 
Rising Sun, on Fleet Street. We spent our evening with 
Dr. Bennet after Evening Prayers at S* Giles'. 

23cZ. — This day being Sunday I was in the morning at 
S* Paul's. Dr. Skirret preached from Matt. vii. 21, — " Not 
every one," etc. There I received the communion. Dean 



52 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Godolpliin, Dean Younger, and Sub-dean Gosling adminis- 
tered. Afternoon I heard Mr. Oliver from Rom. xii. 2, — 
"Be not conformed," etc. It was at S* Austin's. After 
that I was at Chapter Coffee House with Mr. Higgot and 
Mr. Norton. Spent the evening with Mrs. Humphreys and 
another pretty gentlewoman. 

26i7i. — This day we went in the. morning to wait on 
Edmund Bp. of London, who gave us his License certificate 
and benediction by imposition of hands. Then we waited 
on Dr. Lovel. We dined with Dr. Grey, where were Dr. 
Marshall and Mr. Hains. We spent the evening at Dr. 
Bennet's; were at service there. 

30^7i. — This day being Sunday I preached at S* Nicholas, 
Cole Abbey, in the morning, from Phil. i. 27, — " Only let 
your conversation be," etc. We dined at Dr. Bennet's with 
sundry gentlemen. Afternoon I preached the same sermon 
at the Cathedral Church of S*^ Paul, for Dean Younger, with 
whom I went home, and he was very kind. We spent the 
evening with Dr. King, master of the Charter House, in 
company with the Bishop of Man, etc. 

July 4. — This morning we were first surprised with the 
arrival of our friend Mr. Wetmore from New England. ^ We 
went with him to Westminster ; thence at Morning Service at 
Lincoln's Inn, and waited on Dr. Lupton ; thence at sundry 
places, and at Evening Service at S' Foster's with Mr. 
Berriman. 

bth. — This day we went to Dr. Berriman's and Mr. 
Oliver's, then to Westminster ; waited on Mr. Sherlock, 
and dined with Dr. Lovel. Then came to Evening Service 
at S* Foster's, and Dr. Cutler and I stood witnesses for Mr. 
Wetmore at the font. We spent the evening at Mr. Truby's 
with Dr. Dawson, Mr. Oliver, Newhouse, etc. 

1 Dr. Chandler, ia his Lifa of Johnson, p. 37, states that Mr. Wetmore " ac- 
companied them in the tour " to Cambridge; but this is a mistake, as it was made 
prior to his arrival in England. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 53 

QtJi. — This day I was first to wait on Dr. King, iVIaster 
of the Charter House ; after that at S* John's, then at Mrs. 
Cardel's, then we were at Mr. Hay's, and spent the evening 
at Pratt's with Dr. and Mr. Berriman. 

1th. — This day I preached and assisted in administering 
the Sacrament for Mr. Wheatly at S* Swithin, and afternoon 
for Dr. Berriman at All Hallows the Great. We spent the 
evening with Mr. Newman. 

lltli. — This day we were at Lambeth to take our leave 
of the Abp. of Canterbury, who after sundry civilities gave 
us his solemn Apostolical Benediction by imposition of hands. 
We spent the evening at Mr. Manning's. 

lAtTi. — This day I heard Mr. Barrel (formerly a Papist) 
at S* Bottolph's, Aldergate, on " Charity." Afternoon I 
heard Mr. Vernon at St. Paul's, — " God and Mammon." 
We spent the evening with Mr. Newman at the Temple. 

ISth. — This day we were at the Abbey at Westminster 
at the Bp. of Man's Tryal, and spent the afternoon with Mr. 
Jones, Salmon, and Yale. 

I'dth. — This day we were at service at Westminster 
Abbey, then at the Treasury, took our leave of sundry 
friends, and spent the evening with Mr. Oliver and Dr. 
Warren. 

^bth. ■ — This day I was at service at the Royal Chapel, 
at S* James's, at Mr. Wetmore's ordination, and received 
the Sacrament of the Bp. of London ; the rest of the day 
spent in taking leave of our friends. 

2Qth. — This day we took our leave of London and came 
down to Gravesend, Mr. Manning and Mr. Wetmore with us. 

They sailed down the river Thames on the 28th, 
and were ashore at Deal, and afterwards in " a bad 
Btorm." Being windbound they had an opportunity 



54 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

of landing at Cowes on the Isle of Wight, and went 
to Newport and Carisbrook Castle — the latter places 
associated with the memory of the unfortimate King 
Charles I. "Farewell to England ! " said Johnson as 
the vessel carried them out of sight of land. They 
encountered storm after storm on the passage, in one 
of which a man was washed overboard and lost. On 
the 22d of September he wrote in his journal : — 
" This day finished Father le Compte's ' History of 
China,' and Dr. Goodman's ' Winter Evening Confes- 
sions,' and (God be praised) this day, after 8 weeks 
from London and above 6 from the Lizard, we made 
Piscataqua, and landed there. And so ends my voy- 
age for England. We go hence for Boston by land." 

He was now to be separated from the companion- 
shij) of Dr. Cutler, though for many years afterwards 
they had frequent interviews and a constant corre- 
spondence. He passed a few days with Mr. Hony- 
man in Rhode Island, and then proceeded to the 
paternal roof in Guilford from which he had been so 
long absent. His arrival at Stratford in the begin- 
ning of November was joyfully welcomed by his little 
flock; and Mr. Pigot, who had been waiting to be 
relieved, hastened to his new charge in Providence. 

Johnson felt the responsibility of his situation, and 
was alive with the work of organizing and settling the 
Church of England in Connecticut. At this time there 
was no house of public worship for Episcopalians in 
the Colony, but one had been commenced in Stratford, 
and was opened for religious services on Christmas 
Day, nearly fourteen months after his establishment 
in that town. His predecessor had communicated to 
the Society that he would "find it a most difficult 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 55 

task to answer the expectations of the towns around 
him, there being work enough for Sunday laborers in 
the Lord's harvest ; " and his own letters to the 
Bishop of London and others, written after a cursory 
survey of the field, are full of solicitude for the 
'' necessitous state " of the Church. Their replies are 
equally earnest. One dated February 17, 1725, from 
the Rev. J. Berriman, so frequently mentioned in his 
private journal, contains the first intimation which 
Johnson received of the scheme of Berkeley : — 

Dear Sie, — I received yours of October last, and cannot 
let slip the present opportunity of writing, though I have 
little time to write in, and less business to write about. 

I am glad you continue to remember me among your 
other friends in these parts, though you are so far removed 
from us. You may assure yourself nothing will ever blot you 
out of my remembrance, and as I shall always find a pecuhar 
pleasure in reading your letters, so I shall be diligent in 
answering you, if it will give you any satisfaction. 

It is with regret I hear of the difficulties Dr. Cutler labors 
under, and the hard usage Mr. Checkleyhas met with. May 
it please God to make it all turn to the benefit of yours and 
of the whole Church in general, and I beseech Him to succeed 
your labors, and to send more laborers into your harvest. A 
very pious Dean in Ireland is quitting his preferment there 
to go and settle in the Bermuda Islands, where he proposes 
to erect a College — to bring up the natives of America to 
do the oSice of Missionaries, etc. Several friends of his go 
with him upon this expedition. 

We hear of two Nonjuring Bishops (Dr. Welton for one) 
who are gone into America ; and it is said the Bishop of 
London will send one or more of a different stamp as an 
antidote against them. God Almighty prevent the bad 
effects of the one, and in his due time accomplish the other, 
and furnish you with a plentiful supply for all your wants. 



56 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

The good Bisliop of Man continues to be persecuted by 
those stiff-necked rulers that have given him so much dis- 
turbance. The Deputy-governor lately put a man into a 
captain's commission who was under the censure of the 
Church on purpose to affront and provoke the Bishop, and 
throw contempt upon his authority, pretending the Bishop 
has nothing to do with military men. It is hoped and 
expected the insults he daily meets with will occasion some 
ffood law to be made to curb the exorbitant and almost 
independent power of the King of Man. 

Dr. Waddington is made Bp. of Chichester, Dr. Clavering 
of Landaff, Dr. Bradshaw of Bristol, etc. My brother is 
married, and I am moved to his lodgings in Bow Lane, and 
Mr. Scullard boards with us. Mr. Chas. Wheatly has buried 
his wife. Lord Chancellor is turned out of office and fallen 
into great disgrace. 

I am your very affectionate friend and serv't. 

Johnson urged the importance of bishops in this 
country, not only to ordain the men who were in- 
clined to the Episcopal ministry, but to exercise 
proper supervision in ecclesiastical matters. In a 
letter written twelve months after his arrival at 
Stratford, he said to Dr. Gibson, the Bishop of 
London : — " It is a great satisfaction to us to under- 
stand that one of your Lordship's powerful interest 
and influence is engaged in so good a work as that of 
sending bishops into America, and that there is noth- 
ing you desire more or would be at greater pains to 
compass. This gives us the greatest hopes that by 
your Lordship's pious endeavors, under the bless- 
ing of God and the benign influence of our most 
gracious King, it may at length be accomplished. 
And we humbly hope that the address and repre- 
sentation of the state of religion here which we have 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 57 

lately presumed to offer, ma}^, in your Lordship's 
hands, be of some service in this affair. I pray God 
give it. success." 

The position of Johnson now made him influential 
among the friends of the Church throughout New 
England. He was the only Episcopal clergyman in 
Connecticut, and had strong adversaries around him 
in those from whose fellowship he had withdrawn. 
They did much in conformity with the narrow spirit 
of the age to thwart his plans, and drive him from 
the Colony, by rendering his situation uncomfortable 
and embarrassing. But he had prej)ared himself for 
all such opposition, and nothing helped more to 
wear off its edge and win for him the respect and 
confidence of many who were at first suspicious of 
the purity of his motives, than his constantly cheer- 
ful and benevolent temper, and the frankness and 
courtesy with which he defended, his opinions. 

For nearly two years he had lived among his poor 
jDeople and been content with such provision as their 
humble circumstances allowed. But on the 26tli of 
September, 1725, he married Mrs. Charity Nicoll, 
widow of Benjamin Nicoll, Esq., and daughter of 
Colonel Richard Floyd ^ of Brookhaven, Long Island. 
She had three children by her former husband — two 
sons and a daughter — and no sooner had the step- 
father established himself in his own house than he 

1 Writing to his son in 1757, Johnson gave this account to him of his mother's 
ancestors: — '■'Floyd is doubtless originally Z,%(/, LI being pronounced in Wales, 
^dlence they came, like Fl. All I can learn is that your grandfather was born at 
New Castle on the Delaware, that his father and mother came from Wales, and that 
■when he came and settled at Long Island they came with him, and lived to be old. 
His wife was Margaret Woodlmll, whose father was an English gentleman of a con- 
siderable family, cousin-german by his mother to Lord Carew, father to the late 
Bishop of Durham, whose niece was mother to the present Earl of Wallgrave or 
Waldgrave.^^ 



58 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

undertook to instruct the sons in a preliminary course 
of education, and prepare them for Yale College, 
where they both graduated in 1734. The father of 
Johnson wrote him a congratulatory letter on his 
happy marriage, and informed him at the same time 
that his mother was in a languishing condition, 
with little prospect of recovery. Her death, which 
occurred in the succeeding March, preceded a sick- 
ness of his own that brought him nigh to the grave, 
and of which he made this entry in his private 
journal, under date of June 13, 1726 : " Blessed be 
thy goodness, adored be thy kindness, j)atience, and 
forbearance, good and gracious God, who hast 
preserved me from the danger I have been exposed 
to in my late sickness at Boston, and granted me 
so successful, so speedy a relief and recovery from 
so dangerous a distemper. What shall I render to 
the Lord for all his benefits? Let my soul praise 
Thee while I live, and all that is within me bless 
his holy name. Thou forgivest all my iniquities, 
and healest all my diseases. Thou savest my life 
from destruction, and crownest me with loving-kind- 
ness and tender mercy. May I' never forget thy ben- 
efits ! but remember my recovery from this sickness 
as a fresh motive to lay out the life and powers which 
are yet lent and continued to me, with greater zeal 
and engagedness for God's glory, the advancement 
of his Church, and the good of the souls of men ; and 
may it be as a warning to me to walk with more 
watchfulness and circumspection all my days, that I 
may be ready to depart whenever my last summons 
shall arrive." 

Before the year had rolled round, another severe 



OF SAilUEL JOUXSOK 59 

affliction befell him in the decease of his father, — 
" a man remarkable for a friendly temper, and de- 
lighting much in hospitality to strangers." Accord- 
ing to the son's account, he was favorably impressed 
with the Church of England, " entirely brought off 
from most of the fanatical and predestination j^rin- 
ciples, .... and. would have communicated with 
us, if he had lived." The bitter and uncharitable 
spirit of the times had served to deter him from this, 
and he was not so thoroughly persuaded as to " think 
it necessary to leave the Dissenting Communion." 



60 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 



CHAPTER IV. 

POLEMICS AND INFIDELITY; BIRTH OP A SON; PERSONAL AC- 
QUAINTANCE WITH DEAN BERKELEY ; VISITS TO HIH AT NEW- 
PORT, AND A CONVERT TO HIS VIEWS ; ALCIPHRON, OR THE 
MINUTE PHILOSOPHER ; RETURN OF BERKELEY TO ENGLAND, 
AND BENEFACTIONS TO YALE COLLEGE ; RELIGIOUS CONTRO- 
VERSY, AND PUBLICATION OP PAMPHLETS. 

A. D. 1727-1736. 

The inquiring mind of Johnson led him to seek 
the society of scholars, and his thirst for knowledge 
was so great that he neglected no opportunity of 
intellectual improvement. William Burnet was now 
the Governor of New York, " a very bookish man, 
and much of a scholar," as the subject of this memoir 
described him, who had a large library, and whose 
taste for learning might have come from his father, 
for he was the eldest son of Gilbert Burnet, Bishop 
of Salisbury, and the celebrated historian of " His 
Own Time." 

Johnson, in his frequent visits to New York, culti- 
vated the friendship of Governor Burnet, with whom 
he became a great favorite. He was furnished with 
some of the best books that his library contained, 
and in this way was drawn into the thorny thicket 
of the Bangorian controversy, which involved the 
doctrine of the Trinity, and questions of ecclesiastical 
authority, and the proper province of the civil mag- 
istrate. The Governor was a zealous champion on 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 61 

the side of Clark, Wliiston, and Hoadly, and attempted 
dexterously to bring over his young friend to his 
own views. 

Here is one of the letters which he wrote to 
him : — 

New York, August 14, 1727. 

Reverend Sir, — It is so rare a thing in this country to 
find one that reads books with care and impartiality, that you 
need no apology for borrowing, but you give me pleasure in 
doing it. I hate to have them lie idle upon a shelf ; but 
when I lend them to such readers, I reckon they bring me in 
good interest. 

There is no need in reading a controversy to be of one side 
of the question — it is rather better to be of neither ; and, in 
points which are not capable of demonstration, perhaps those 
who never entirely determine, but still are in some suspense, 
act most rationally. Candor and temper are sufficient bonds 
of unity, without sameness of opinion. 

The thing that always hung most in my mind out of Dr. 
Clark's book was, that there were but three possible opinions 
upon the subject, and that whoever has any opinion fixed, 
has one of the three, and that all other opinions are mere 
self-delusion and mere nothing, however plausibly disguised. 
As to the style and decency of writing which you commend 
in the Doctor, it is certainly very taking ; and it is commonly 
the lot of the most unpopular to write so, whereas those who 
are backed by numbers are apt to swagger. I remember my 
father was called a Socinian, because in one of his books he 
commends the serious, modest way of controversy. But this 
is no proof of people's being right ; and accordingly, I re- 
member an able member of the House of Commons, speaking 
of a very rising young member, said, what a pity he had- 
not been of the side of the minority, for then he would have 
had a complete finishing, but as he was on the winning side, 
it was a great chance but he would be spoiled. So much a 
better scliool is adversity than prosperity in every stage and 



62 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

profession of life. As to the three opinions, I take the 
fashionable one to be Sabellianism, as I have often found by- 
conversation, of which Socinianism ought to be a conse- 
quence, though seldom drawn, and therefore not fairly charge- 
able ; the most uncommon one Tritheism, which people are 
oftener driven to by dispute than that they choose it ; and 
the most obvious one that of the inequality, which would be 
more universal if it did not seem to lead to Polytheism, 
though not so much as Tritheism does. I send the books, 
and am, sir, 

Your most humble servant, 

W. Burnet. 
To this Johnson replied : — 

May it please your Excellency, — Dr. Clark's writ- 
ings are so very agreeable and instructive that I cannot 
presently be disengaged from them, when I have once got 
them under my eye ; however, I now at last return those of 
them which I had last, with my humble thanks for them and 
those kind lines which accompanied them from your Excel- 
lency, full of very wise and true observations. 

But as to the last of them, relating to the three opinions : 
if Sabellianism do indeed necessarily include and infer Socin- 
ianism ; and if, at the same time, the common orthodoxy 
were not really different from Sabellianism, provided there 
were but three possible opinions on this subject, I should 
readily enough subscribe to that of the inequality ; for I can- 
not conceive how a great many texts of Scripture can be 
fairly accounted for upon the Socinian hypothesis; and. as 
for Tritheism, that is demonstrably and utterly inconsistent 
with reason as well as Scripture. But that of the inequal- 
ity, though reasonable and intelligible enough, and very well 
accounting for most texts of Scripture relating to this subject, 
yet there are some texts which I wish I could, but cannot 
find reconcilable to it, without too great a violence done to 
them, and too great a deviation from the most obvious sense 
and meaning of them. It seems to me, therefore, there must 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 63 

be a fourth hypothesis possible, though it may not be com- 
prehensible or explicable ; and yet, so far as it is discovered 
to us, it is intelligible, and because it is divinely revealed, 
must be credible. But I shall gladly embrace any further 
light on this subject. 

If your Excellency removes to Boston, as the people there 
will no doubt think themselves very happy, so I shall be 
very glad in particular that you remove no further from us, 
and that it will yet remain practicable for me to enjoy the 
advantages of that condescending goodness you have hitherto 
expressed towards me. And therefore, if I may yet presume, 
I shall be very much obliged to your Excellency if you will 
please to lend me any other good book, and particularly an 
Italian Grammar, after the manner of Boyer for the French, 
for I have a curiosity to look into the nature of that language. 
I am. 

May it please your Excellency, 

Your most humble, etc., 

S. J. 

Thus he found him indisposed to adopt conclusions 
until lie had examined and approved the basis on 
which they rested. The cause of truth demanded an 
impartial study of the matters in dispute, and there- 
fore Johnson turned to the writings of those who had 
arrayed themselves in opposition to the principles of 
these men, — to such authors as Bull, Pearson and 
Waterland, Sherlock, Snape and Law, — and very soon 
he was more convinced than ever that the modus of 
the Trinity was not to be accounted for on any phil- 
osophical hypothesis ; that it is beyond the reach of 
our faculties, and to be received as taught in the 
Scriptures, and believed in the Church for ages imme- 
diately succeeding the Apostolic. Thus he rejected 
human speculation in Divine things, and settled down 
in the conviction, as he himself states in his autobi- 



64 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

ography, — " That we must be content chiefly, if not 
only, both in nature and 'revelation, with the knowl- 
edge of facts and their design and connections, without 
speculating much further ; that one great end of all 
God's discoveries, both in nature and grace, is to 
mortify our pride and self-sufficiency, to make us 
deeply sensible of our entire dependence, and chiefly 
to engage us to live by faith and not hy sight''' 

A club of free-thinkers in England about this time 
startled the nation with their bold attacks on Chris- 
tianity. Included in the members of this club were 
Anthony Collins, Thomas Woolston, and Matthew 
Tindall, all of whom, as if by concert, openly engaged 
in an effort to bring discredit upon the religion of the 
Bible, and weaken the faith of the disciples of Christ. 
They issued their publications in succession, and at- 
tacked Christianity from different points, claiming, 
among other things, that the miracles of Christ were 
susceptible of a mystical interpretation, and at the 
same time asserting that they were never actually 
wrought. 

These infidel writers were attended and followed 
by others in the same abandoned cause, so that, as 
Johnson says, " it seemed as if hell itself was broke 
loose at once to undermine and demolish Christianity." 
He read very carefully the books that were prepared 
in defense of the truth and in confutation of the 
principles of the free-thinkers, and thus became a 
scholar armed and ready to do battle in his Master's 
service. " I remember," says Chandler in his Life,^ 
" to have heard him in conversation give an account 
of the various attacks upon revelation, and of the 

1 p. 143. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 65 

defenses which they occasioned, similar to that given 
by Leland in his ' View of the Deistical Writers,' " 
and this too before that valuable work was published. 

The loss of his parents, referred to in the previous 
chapter, was supplied to him in a measure by the 
birth of a child. On the 14th day of October, 1727, 
he made an entry in his private journal in these 
words, — "This day I am 31 years old, and this 
sevennight (October 7) it hath pleased God of his 
goodness to give me the great blessing of a very 
likely son, for which, and in my wife's comfortable 
deliverance, I adore his goodness. 

" Thus I am no sooner deprived of a father but I 
am provided for with a son to supply the demands of 
oui? mortal condition in this world. My only hope in 
Thee, God, who hast been my father's God, and 
who art my God, is, that Thou wilt be his God and 
portion in the land of the living, and forever. I have 
dedicated him to Thee ; sanctify him by thy grace, 
that he may be serviceable unto Thee in the world, 
and be fitted for and made partaker of thy glory." 

The pleasant letters which follow touch upon his 
domestic relations, and revive the recollection of 
friendships formed while he was sojourning in Lon- 
don: — 

Bow Lane, Sept. 25, 1727. 
Rev. Sir, — I have a long time wished and hoped for a 
letter from you, but not being so happy as to receive one, I 
am resolved to force myself into your acquaintance, hoping 
the distance cannot hinder our good wishes to each other. 
I heard from Dr. Cutler success attends your labors in the 
ministry. I pray God continue health to you, and pros- 
perity to your endeavors. I cannot but wish you all 
happiness in the change of your condition, and doubt not a 



66 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

man of your zeal and goodness will meet with all the bless- 
ings a married estate can allow. I should be pleased to 
divert you with a little news, but we have none fresher than 
the death of the good Bp. of Bath and Wells, and hope to 
have so'ine good man his successor. Our new King seems 
everybody's favorite, and his Government so equitable that 
we flatter ourselves all things will be managed to universal 
satisfaction. 

I am, dear sir, your affectionate brother. 

And very humble servant, 

J. SCULLAED. 

Dr. Waterland is made a Prebend of Windsor. 

Immediately on its reception Johnson replied to 
this letter as follows : — 

Rev. Sir, — I have received yours of the 25th of Septem- 
ber, and am very much obliged to you for retaining me still 
in your remembrance, and for this kind testimony of it, for 
indeed I was almost afraid you had quite forgot me. But I 
am surprised if you never received any letter from me, for 
I have written to you once and again, and I was afraid I 
should never have the happiness of receiving one from you. 
But the distance makes correspondence uncertain ; however, 
I shall be glad, and not only esteem it an happiness but an 
honor, to receive now and then a letter from you, and you 
may depend upon it that I shall not be wanting on my part. 

I thank you for your kind congratulations upon my new 
condition, not so new now indeed, but that I have a son, I 
thank God, as well as a wife. I hope I shall have occasion 
before long to congratulate you upon the like occasion, and 
that you will be as happy in such a state as you can wish me, 
and as happy, I thank heaven, I am as this fading world 
and this poor country will admit of. 

I am glad to hear you are all so well pleased with our new 
King, and that we have so good a prospect of the welfare of 
the Church under his auspicious reign. I pray God we may 
feel the benign influences of it in these distant regions. I am 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 67 

glad so good a man as Dr. Waterland is taken notice of, and 
sorry for the good Bp. of Bath and Wells' death. I shall be 
glad to be informed who succeeds, and what other altera- 
tions and preferments occur. In hopes of which, my humble 
and affectionate regards to Mr. Berriman, Wheatly, and all 
friends. 

I remain your most humble brother, 

S. Johnson. 
I have not heard who is the Rector since good Mr. Laz- 
inby's death. 

One of the most interesting portions of Johnson's 
life was from the beginning of 1729 to the autumn of 
1731, — the period covered by the residence of Dean 
Berkeley at Newport in Rhode Island. Before that 
dignitary came to America, he had read his "Prin- 
ciples of Human Knowledge," and had not only 
formed a high estimate of the ability and character 
of the author, but had become in a measure a convert 
to his metaphysical opinions. Desirous of conversing 
with so extraordinary a genius and so distinguished 
a scholar, he made a visit to Newport soon after 
his arrival, and through his friend, the Rev. Mr. 
Honyman, Missionary of the Church of England in 
that place, he was introduced to the Dean, and 
admitted to a free and full discussion of his philo- 
sophical works, and of the benevolent scheme which 
brought him to this country. It was gratifying to 
Johnson that in this first interview he was received 
with such marked kindness .and confidence, besides 
being presented with those of the Dean's publications 
which had not fallen under his eye. The personal 
acquaintance thus begun laid the foundation of a life- 
long friendship and correspondence between two great 
thinkers. 



68 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

There are glimpses of Berkeley among 'the wits of 
the Court of Queen Anne, and he was intimate with 
Steele and Addison, and a companion of Swift and 
Pope. He had been Senior Fellow of Trinity College, 
Dublin, in official employment as Lecturer in Divinity, 
and preacher for the University, but resigned his 
Fellowship in 1724 on being preferred to the Deanery 
of Derry, — an important living in the Irish Church, 
with an annual income of about eleven hundred 
pounds. A romance connected with Dean Swift 
caused him to be remembered in the will of a lady 
of Dutch descent (Miss Yanhormigh),^ but as he was 
an " absolute philosopher in regard to money, titles, 
and power," the fortune which came to him so unex- 
pectedly appears to have only ripened his conception 
of the plan of erecting a college at Bermuda for 
better supplying the plantations with clergymen, and 
converting the savage Americans to Christianity. 

It was about this time that he published a tract in 
defense of the enterprise. It had taken such shape 
in his mind, that he pleaded for it with wonderful 
power, and was resolved to dedicate his life and 
fortune and energies to its prosecution. An extract 
from the humorous letter of Dean Swift to Carteret, 
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, dated September 3, 1724, 
may furnish the best account of his enthusiasm : — 

For three years past he has been struck with a notion of 
founding a University at Bermudas by a charter from the 
Crown. He has seduced several of the hopefullest young 
clergymen and others here, many of them well provided for, 
and all in the fairest way of preferment ; but in England his 
conquests are greater, and I doubt will spread very far this 

1 See Eraser's Life and Letters of Berkeley, Oxford, 1871, ch. ir. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. GO 

winter. He showed me a little Tract which he designs to 
publish, and there your Excellency will see his whole scheme 
of a life academico-philosophical (I shall make you remember 
what you were) of a college founded for Indian scholars and 
missionaries, where he most exorbitantly proposes a whole 
hundred pounds a year for himself, forty pomids for a Fel- 
low, and ten for a Student. His heart will break if his 
Deanery be not taken from him and left to your Excellency's 
disposal. I discouraged him by the coldness of courts and 
ministers who will interpret all this as impossible and a vision ; 
but nothing mil do. And, therefore, I humbly entreat your 
Excellency either to use such persuasions as will keep one of 
the first men in the kingdom for learning and virtue quiet 
at home, or assist him by your credit to oompass his romantic 
design.^ 

No discouragements checked the efforts of Berke- 
ley. By his persuasive eloquence he converted 
ridiculers into friends and supporters, and obtained 
towards the furtherance of his object private sub- 
scriptions of more than five thousand pounds. He 
approached the throne for a charter, which was 
finally granted, and then his influence at Court 
secured the promise of an endowment of £20,000 — 
a fraction of the value of certain lands which the 
French, by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, had ceded 
to the British Crown, and the proceeds of which, to 
the amount of £80,000, the good Queen Anne had 
designed as a fund for the support of four bishops in 
America. Her death, the next year, prevented the 
execution of her charitable design, and Berkeley felt 
that he had a moral claim upon it for his own kindred 
scheme. 

Preparations for his voyage across the Atlantic 

1 Works, vol. xvi. p. 469. 



70 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

were at last completed, and a business letter to his 
friend, Thomas Prior, dated Gravesend, September 5, 
1728, opens with a paragraph which has fixed his- 
torically several matters, — " To-morrow, with God's 
blessing, I set sail for Rhode Island with my wife aiid 
a friend of hers, my Lady Handcock's daughter, who' 
bears us company. I am married since I saw you 
to Miss Forster, daughter of the late Chief Justice,^ 
whose humor and turn of mind pleases me beyond 
anything that I know in her whole sex. Mr. James, 
Mr. Dalton, and Mr. Smibert go with us on this 
voyage. We are now altogether at Gravesend, and 
are engaged in one view." 

Berkeley was in middle life when he landed at 
Newport on the 23d of January, nearly five months 
after sailing from Gravesend, and " was ushered into 
the town with a great number of gentlemen, to whom 
he behaved himself after a very complaisant manner." 
Here he rested to think over, under new circum- 
stances, the romantic enterprise which had absorbed 
his energies for seven long years, and purchasing a 
tract of land in a sequestered spot, he built a com- 
modious house, which, in loyal remembrance of the 
English palace, he named Whitehall, and waited the 
tardy movements of Sir Robert Walpole, the prime 
minister, to send him the funds which had been 
promised by the Government. 

It was in this retreat that he continued his philo- 
sophical investigations, and received the successive 
visits of Johnson. The date of the first personal in- 
terview between them has not been discovered, but 

1 John Forster, also Recorder of Dublin, and Speaker of the Irish House of Com- 
mons. The marriage took place August 1, 1728. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 71 

as early as June 25, 1729, Berkeley wrote to him at 
much length, m answer to objections or inquiries 
whicli he had been moved to make in reference to 
his Philosophy. Judging from its tenor it is thought 
to have been his first letter to Johnson. He began 
thus : — 

Rev. Sir, — The ingenious letter you favored me with 
found me very much indisposed with a gathering or impost- 
humation in my head which confined me several weeks, and 
is now, I thank God, relieved. The objections of a candid 
thinking man to what I have written will always be welcome, 
and I shall not fail to give all the satisfaction I am able, not 
without hopes either of convincing or being convinced. It is 
a common fault for men to hate opposition, and be too much 
wedded to their own opinions. I am so sensible of this in 
others that I could not pardon it to myself, if I considered 
mine any further than they seem to me to be true, Avliich I 
shall the better be able to judge of when they have passed 
the scrutiny of persons so well qualified to examine them as 
you and your friends appear to be, to whom my illness must 
be an apology for not sending this answer sooner. 

He proceeded briefly to explain or defend under 
eleven heads the philosophic ideas which he had 
published, and then closed his letter with words 
which show his high respect for the intellectual force 
and clearness of Johnson : — 

And now, Sir, I submit these hints (which I have hastily 
thrown together as soon as my illness gave me leave) to your 
own maturer thoughts, which after all you will find the best 
instructors. What you have seen of mine was published 
when I was very young, and without doubt hath, many 
defects. For though the notions should be true (as I verily 
think they are), yet it is difficult to express them clearly 
and consistently, language being framed to common use and 



72 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

received prejudices. I do not therefore pretend that my 
books can teach truth. All I hope for is that they may be 
an occasion to inquisitive men of discovering truth by consult- 
ing their own minds and looking into their own thoughts. 
As to the Second part of my treatise concerning the principles 
of Human Knowledge, the fact is that I had made a con- 
siderable progress in it, but the manuscript was lost about 
fourteen years ago during my travels in Italy ; and I never 
had leisure since to do so disagreeable a thing as writing 
twice on the same subject. 

Objections passing through your hands have their full 
force and clearness. I like them the better. This inter- 
course with a man of parts and a philosophic genius is very 
agreeable. I sincerely wish we were nearer neighbors.^ In 
the mean time whenever either you or your friends favor me 
with your thoughts, you may be sure of a punctual corre- 
spondence on my part. Before I have done I will venture to 
recommend three points : 1. To consider well the answers I 
have already given in my books to several objections. 2. To 
consider whether any new objection that shall occur doth not 
suppose the doctrine of abstract general ideas. 3. Whether 
the difficulties proposed in objection to my scheme can be 
solved by the contrary, for if they cannot, it is plain they 
can be no objection to mine. 

I know not whether you have got my treatise concerning 
the principles of Human Knowledge. I intend to send it 
with my tract De Motu. If you know of a safe hand favor 
me with a line, and I will make use of that opportunity to 
send them. My humble service to your friends, to whom I 
understand myself indebted for some part of your letter. 
I am, your very faithful, humble serv't, 

Geoe. Berkeley. 

The correspondence thus begun was continued, and 
the following letter, written after Berkeley was well 
settled in his own house, indicates that the two had 

1 The distance from Stratford to Newport is about 120 miles. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 73 

been brought face to face in the discussion of great 
metaphysical questions, and that further conversation 
was needed to " set several things in a fuller and 
clearer light : " — 

Rev. Sir, — Yours of Feb. 5th came not to my hands 
before yesterday ; and this afternoon being informed that a 
sloop is ready to sail towards your town, I would not let 
slip the opportunity of returning you an answer, though 
wrote in a hurry. 

1. I have no objection against calling the ideas in the mind 
of God, archetypes of ours. But I object against those arche- 
types by philosophers supposed to be real things, and to 
have an absolute rational existence distinct from their being 
perceived by any mind whatsoever, it being the opinion of 
all materialists that an ideal existence in the divine mind is 
one thing, and the real existence of material things another. 

2. As to space, I have no notion of any but that which 
is relative. I know some late philosophers have attributed 
extension to God, particularly mathematicians ; one of whom, 
in a treatise de Spatio reali, pretends to find out fifteen of 
the incommunicable attributes of God in space. But it 
seems to me that, they being all negative, he might as well 
have found them in nothing ; and that it would have been 
as justly inferred from space being impassive, increated, in- 
divisible, etc., that it was nothing, as that it was God. 

Sir Isaac Newton supposeth an absolute space different 
from relative, and consequent thereto, absolute motion dif- 
ferent from relative motion ; and with all other mathema- 
ticians, he supposeth the infinite divisibility of the finite 
parts of this absolute space ; he also supposeth material 
bodies to drift therein. Now, though I do acknowledge Sir 
Isaac to have been an extraordinary man, and most profound 
mathematician, yet I cannot agree with him in these particu- 
lars. I make no scruple to use the word space, as well as all 
other words in common use, but I do not mean thereby a 
distinct absolute being. For my meaning I refer you to what 
I have published. 



7^ LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

By the to vw I suppose to be implied that all things past and 
to come are actually present to the mind of God, and that 
there is in Him no change, variation, or succession. A suc- 
cession of ideas I take to constitute time, and not to be only 
the sensible measure thereof, as Mr. Locke and others think. 
But in these matters every man is to think for himself, and 
speak as he finds. One of my earliest inquiries Avas about 
time, which led me into several paradoxes that I did not 
think fit or necessary to publish, particularly into the notion 
that the resurrection follows next moment to death. We 
are confounded and perplexed about time. (1.) Supposing 
a succession in God. (2.) Conceiving that we have an 
abstract idea of time. (3.) Supposing that the time in one 
mind is to be measured by the succession of ideas in another. 
(4.) Not considering the true use and end of words, which 
as often terminate in the will as the understanding, being 
employed rather to excite, influence, and direct action than 
to produce clear and distinct ideas. 

3. That the soul of man is passive as well as active I 
make no doubt. Abstract general ideas was a notion that 
Mr. Locke held in common with the Schoolmen, and I think 
all other philosophers ; it runs through his whole book of 
Human Understanding. He holds an abstract idea of exist- 
ence exclusive of perceiving and being perceived. I cannot 
find I have any such idea, and this is my reason against it. 
Descartes proceeds upon other principles. One square foot 
of snow is as white as one thousand yards ; one single per- 
ception is as truly a perception as one hundred. Now any 
degree of perception being sufiicient to existence, it will not 
follow that we should say one existed more at one time than 
another, any more than we should say one thousand yards of 
snow are whiter than one yard. But after all, this comes to 
a verbal dispute. I think it might prevent a good deal of 
obscurity and dispute to examine well what I have said about 
abstraction, and about the true use of sense and significancy 
of words, in several parts of these things that I have pub- 
lished, though much remains to be said on that subject. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 75 

You say you agree with me that there is nothing within 
your mind but God and other spirits, with the attributes 
or properties belonging to them, and the ideas contained 
in them. This is a principle or main point from which, and 
from what I had laid down about abstract ideas, much may 
be deduced. But if in every inference we should not agree, 
so long as the main points are settled and well understood, 
I should be less solicitous about particular conjectures. I 
could wish that all the things I have published on these 
philosophical subjects were read in the order wherein I pub- 
lished them, once to take the design and connection of them, 
and a second time with a critical eye, adding your own 
thought and observation upon every part as you went along. 
I send you herewith ten bound books and one unbound. 
You will take yourself what you have not already. You 
will give the principles, the theory, the dialogue, one of each, 
with my service to the gentleman who is Fellow of New 
Haven College, whose compliments you brou^t to me. 
What remains you will give as you please. 

If at any time your affairs should draw you mto these 
parts, you shall be very welcome to pass as many days as 
you can spend at my house. Four or five days' conversation 
would set several things in a fuller and clearer light than 
writing could do in as many months. In the mean time I 
shall be glad to hear from you or your friends whenever you 
please to favor, Rev. Sir, 

Your very humble serv't, 

Geob. Beekeley. 

Pray let me know whether they would admit the writings 
of Hooker and Chilhngworth into the library of the College 
in New Haven. 

Khode Island, March 24, 1729-30. 

Johnson was at Newport and preached November 1, 
1730, and he may have taken an earlier opportunity 
for the " four or five days' conversation." Whenever 



76 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

the interview was held, other subjects besides phil- 
osophy must have entered into their discussions. For 
Berkeley had already begun to realize the painful un- 
certainty which hung over his prospects, and to feel 
that the crisis of the Bermuda College was approach- 
ing. The money promised by the Government had 
not been sent, and he wrote a letter to Prior on the 
7th of May, 1730, manifesting much sohcitude about 
the Ministerial delays, and intimating that he had no 
intention of continuing in these parts, if the grant 
of £20,000 was in the end to be positively refused. 
At one time he entertained the thought of applying 
for 23ermission to change the original plan and trans- 
fer the College to Rhode Island, where he had ex- 
pended largely for lands and buildings, and where the 
chief objections raised against placing it in Bermuda 
would be obviated. But he quickly relinquished this 
idea, and at length his hopes were entirely crushed 
when the conclusive answer came from Walpole, 
*^ advising him by all means to return home to Eu- 
rope, and give up his present expectations." He 
bore his great disappointment like a philosopher, and 
a good picture of his feelings is given in the work ^ 
which he wrote " in this distant retreat, far beyond 
the verge of that great whirlpool of business, faction, 
and pleasure, which is called the world : " — 

I flattered myself, Theages, that before this time I might 
have been able to have sent you an agreeable account of the 
success of the affair which brought me into this remote corner 
of the country. But instead of this, I should now give you 
the detail of its miscarriage, if I did not rather choose to 
entertain you with some amusing incidents which have 

^Alciphron; or, the Minute Philosopher, in Seven Dialogues. Two vols. Printed 
in London, 1732. A second edition appeared in the same year. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 77 

helped to make me easy under a circumstance I could neither 
obviate nor foresee. Events are not in our power ; but it 
always is, to make a good use even of the very worst. And 
I must needs own, the course and event of this affair gave 
opportunity for reflections that make me some amends for 
a great loss of time, pains, and expense. A life oE action, 
which takes its issue from the counsels, passions, and views 
of other men, if it doth not draw a man to imitate, will at 
least teach him to observe. And a mind at liberty to refl.ect 
on its own observations, if it produce nothing useful to the 
world, seldom fails of entertainment to itself.-^ 

It is due to Johnson that the self-sacrificing and 
missionary enterprise of Berkeley was not wholly a 
failure, or rather that his name was held in grateful 
remembrance in America after his return to England. 
When it had been decided to break up and leave 
Whitehall and the country, he paid him a final visit 
and received from him many valuable books, and to 
use his own words, they " parted very affectionately." 
Nor was this all. Both were deeply interested in the 
cause of learning, and Johnson took the liberty of 
commending to his friendly notice the institution 
where he had himself been educated, notwithstand- 
ing the continued hostility of the authorities to the 
Church of England. He was in Rhode Island, July, 
1731, and on the 4tli day of that month, according 
to his own note, preached " before the Dean," a ser- 
mon from the text, — " For in Christ Jesus neither 
circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, 
but a new creature." This was undoubtedly his final 
visit when they " agreed " together about the books, 
and discussed the matters of the College ; but letters 
passed between them afterwards, and Berkeley, on the 

1 p. 2, vol. i. 2d ed. 



78 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

eve of Ills departure, wrote his great American friend 
as follows : — 

Rev. Sir, — I am now upon the point of setting out for 
Boston in order to embark for England. But the hurry I 
am in could not excuse my neglecting to acknowledge the 
favor of your letter. In answer to the obliging things in 
it, I can only say I wish I might deserve them. 

My endeavors shall not be wanting, some way or other, to 
be useful ; and I should be very glad to be so in particular 
to the College at New Haven, and the more as you were 
once a member of it, and have still an influence there. Pray 
return my service to those gentlemen who sent their com- 
pliments by you. 

I have left a box of books with Mr. Kay, to be given away 
by you, — the small English books where they may be most 
serviceable among the people, the others as we agreed to- 
gether. The Greek and Latin books I would have given to 
such lads as you think will make the best use of them in the 
College, or to the school at New Haven. 

I pray God to bless you and your endeavors to promote 
religion and learning in this uncultivated part of the world, 
and desire you to accept mine and my wife's best wishes and 
services, being very truly, Rev. Sir, 

Your most humble servant, 

Geoe. Beekeley. 

Rhode Island, Sept. 7, 1731. 

Berkeley's gifts to Yale College were through the 
agency of Johnson. To him was transmitted from Eng- 
land the instrument by which he conveyed to the cor- 
poration his farm at Whitehall of ninety-six acres, — 
the annual proceeds to be used for the purpose of 
encouraging Greek and Latin scholarship : and he 
so interested some of his Bermuda subscribers in the 
American College, that with their assistance he was 
enabled to send over in 1733 a donation to the library 



OF SA^IUEL JOHNSON. 79 

of nearly one thousand volumes, valued at about 
£500 : "The finest collection of books" according; to 
President Clap, " which had then ever been brought 
to America." 

The letter to Johnson which accompanied " the in- 
strument of conveyance," has not been published, or 
even referred to in any sketch of his life and bene- 
factions ; and that to Rector Williams is not to be 
found among the archives of Yale College. A little 
doubt has been raised about Johnson's sole agency in 
the matter, and the motive which actuated him and 
the Dean ; -^ but this letter removes it, and at the same 
time shows the singleness of the donor's intentions 
and the forecast of his mind as to a course after 
graduation. He appears to have been the first to 
suggest its advantages : — 

London, Juhj 25, 1732. 

Rev. Sir, — Some part of the benefactions to the College 
of Bermuda, which I could not return, the benefactors being 
deceased, joined mth the assistance of some living friends, 

1 President Stiles, in his Diary, saj's Johnson " persuaded the Dean to believe that 
Yale College would soon become Episcopal, and that they had received his immaterial 
philosophy. This or some other motive influenced the Dean to make a donation of 
his Rhode Island farm, ninety-six acres, with a library of about a thousand vol- 
umes, to Yale College, in 1733. This donation was certainly procured very much 
through the instrumentality of Rev. Dr. Jared Eliot and Rev. Dr. Johnson." 

The latter writing to Abp. Seeker, March, 1759, and referring to efforts of the Con- 
gregational ministers to depreciate the work of the missionaries, said: "I main- 
tained all along a very friendly correspondence with the chief men among them, 
and etideavored to do them all the good offices I could, and in particular I procured a 
noble donation from Bishop Berkeley for their College in land and books to the value 
of nigh ^2,000 sterling. But behold the gratitude of these men. At the same time 
that I was doing them these good offices, thej-- were contriving and did send to the 
Bishop of London a long letter, full of gross falsehoods and misrepresentations, of ' 
complaint against us with a view to get all the church people deprived of their min- 
isters, and then of their subsistence, which he laid before the Society, and which I be- 
lieve your Grace may find among papers of the year 1735. In reph- to which the 
Society gave them leave to produce evidence to make good their complaints against 
us, which they endeavored to do, but could make nothing of it." 



80 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

has enabled me without any great loss to myself, to dispose 
of my farm in Rhode Island in favor of the College in Con- 
necticut. It is my opinion that as human learning and the 
improvements of Reason are of no small use in Religion, so 
it would very much forward those ends, if some of your stu- 
dents were enabled to subsist longer at their studies, and if 
by a public tryal and premium an Emulation were inspired 
into all. This method of encouragement hath been found 
useful in other learned societies, and I think it cannot fail 
of being so in one where a person so well qualified as yourself 
has such influence, and will bear a share in the elections. 
I have been a long time indisposed with a great disorder in 
my head ; this makes any application hurtful to *me, which 
must excuse my not writing a longer letter on this occasion. 
The letter you sent by Mr. Beach ^ I received and did 
him all the service I could with the Bishop of London and 
the Society. He promised to call on me before his return, 
but have not heard of him, so am obliged to recommend 
this pacquet to Mr. Newman's care. It contains the in- 
strument of conveyance ^ in form of law, together with a let- 

1 Rev. John Beach of Newtown. 

2 The farm contained ninetj^-six acres more or less, and was worth at the time, 
one hundred pounds sterling. It was leased March 25th, 1763, to John Whiting for 
nine hundred and ninety-nine years. The President and Fellows of Yale College 
recited in the agreement, that they had " found upon the experience of thirty years 
past that by leasing said farm on short leases, the housing and fences have greatly 
gone to decay, the wood destroyed, and the farm not improved to so good an advan- 
tage as land cultivated by freeholders, which is likely to be the case for some cen- 
turies while land is so plenty in this countiy ; upon mature consideration whereof 
and the advice of Kev. George Berkeley, the son of the generous donor, and sundry 
other gentlemen learned in the law, and skilled in the best economy," the annual 
rent, from March 25th, 1763, to March 25th, 1769, was fixed at 72 ounces of silver 
money, besides requiring about 300 rods of stone wall to be made upon the prem- 
ises ; from 1769 to 1810, 144 ounces of silver money ; and from 1810, to the termi- 
nation of the lease 240 bushels of good merchantable wheat or its value. 

Whiting assigned his lease to other parties, and subsequently a new one was given 
for the remainder of the period, fixing the annual rent from 1769 to 1789 at 100 
ounces of silver money ; from 1789 to 1810 at 126 ounces of silver money ; and after 
1810 at 210 bushels of wheat. 

A party wishing to buy the lease, wrote March 2d, 1799, that the rent was too 
great after 1810 ; and the corporation therefore voted the next year that the tenant 
should pay $130 annually for ten years, and after that $140. 

The latest lease was executed May 18th, 1801, by Timothy Dwight, President of 



OF SA^IUEL JOHNSON. 81 

ter for Mr. President Williams, which you will deliver to 
him. I shall make it my endeavor to procure a benefaction 
of books for the College library, and am not without hopes 
of success. There hath of late been published here a treatise 
against those who are called Free Thinkers, which I intended 
to have sent to you and some other friends in those parts, but 
on second thoughts suspect it might do mischief to have it 
known in that part of the world what pernicious opinions 
are boldly espoused here at home. My little family, I thank 
God, are well. My best wishes attend you and yours. 
My wife joins her services with mine. I shall be glad to 
hear from you by the first opportmiity after this hath come 
to your hands. Direct your letter to Lord Percival, at his 
house in Pall-Mall, London, and it will be sure to find me 
wherever I am. On all occasions I shall be glad to show 
that I am very truly. Rev. Sir, 

Yom' faithful humble serv*., 

Geor. Berkeley. 

Johnson, in his autobiography, mentions that "the 
Trustees, though they made an appearance of much 
thankfulness, were almost afraid to accept the noble 
donation," — suspecting a proselytizing design, and 
remembering the effect in previous years of Anglican 
divinity upon the minds of some of their leading- 
scholars. But wiser counsels prevailed, the books 
and lands were received, and Berkeley maintained a 
friendly correspondence with the authorities of the 
College to the end of his life. 

His well-known philosophical work, published the 
year after his return to England, attracted the atten- 
tion of learned men, and while many rejected his 

Yale Collefje, in favor of Paul Wightman, his heirs and assigns forever, fixing the rent 
at $140 per annum from March 25th, 1810, to March 25th, 2761. -See Records of Y. C. 
The Farm is now estimated to be worth $100,000, and if it had been kept in 
possession of the College, Berkeley's gift would have been a vastly greater stimulus 
to classical scholarship. 
G 



82 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

speculative spirit, none denied the greatness of his 
intellect and the purity of his Christian character. 
It was some compensation for the disappointment of 
his cherished hopes that so far from being overlooked 
at Court, he was promoted to the See of Cloyne, — 
a secluded bishopric in the southern part of his na- 
tive Ireland, to which he was consecrated on Sunday, 
the 19th of May, 1734. In this retired spot, where 
he was almost as much out of the world as he had 
been at Newport, he found leisure to pursue his fa- 
vorite studies, and to keep up by letter a tolerably 
frequent intercourse with his congenial friend on this 
side of the Atlantic. 

Johnson became a thorough convert to his system, 
and owned his obligations to Berkeley in removing 
many difficulties that had hitherto attended his phil- 
osophical and theological inquiries. As he himself 
says in his autobiography, " he found the Dean's way 
of thinking and explaining things, utterly precluded 
skepticism, and left no room for endless doubts and un- 
certainties. His denying matter at first seemed shock- 
ing ; but it was only for the want of giving a thorough 
attention to his meaning. It was only the unintelli- 
gible scholastic notion of matter he disputed, and not 
anything either sensible, imaginable, or intelligible ; 
and it was attended with this vast advantage, that it 
not only gave new incontestible proofs of a Deity, but 
moreover, the most striking apprehensions of his 
constant presence with us and inspection over us, 
and of our entire dependence on Him and infinite 
obligations to his most wise and almighty benevo- 
lence." 

The history of philosophic thought was blended to 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 83 

some extent with the infidelity of the times, but 
Berkeley went a great deal deeper and wider than 
those who treated his theories roughly and pro- 
nounced them fallacious and bewildering. It was his 
design in " Alciphron ; or, the Minute Philosopher," 
to vindicate the Christian religion, and overcome the 
various objections of atheists, fatalists, enthusiasts, lib- 
ertines, scorners, critics, metaphysicians, and skeptics. 
Years before, while present at one of the deistical 
clubs in London, he had heard a " noted writer ^ 
against Christianity declare that he had found out 
a demonstration against the being of a God ; " and 
though the thing was palpably false, he was ready 
to disprove it, and thereby to encourage a religious 
faith in the constancy of a Divine and superintending 
Power. Johnson was doubly careful to guard the 
truth, for he had under his eye at this time, and 
directed in their theological studies, young men, who, 
having finished their collegiate course, declared for 
Episcopacy, and were preparing to proceed to Eng- 
land for ordination. The following letter, otherwise 
interesting, mentions two, Isaac Browne and John 
Pierson, graduates of Yale Collge in 1729 : — 

Dear Sir, — I am obliged to you for introducing me into 
the company of such worthy gentlemen as Mr. Browne and 
Mr. Pierson, and doubt not but they will ever be a credit 
to their Tutor, and a light and ornament to the Church in 
your parts ; and I hope their success will prove an encour- 
agement to others. 

I might now send you a long account of the bustle we 
have had here about laying an excise on wine and tobacco, 
which has put the whole nation in a flame that will not 
presently be quenched, — of the divided state we have been 
in as to peace and war, by the affairs of Poland, where we 

1 Anthony Collins. 



84 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

suppose a king is chosen by this time, but as yet know not 
who is the person, — of the death of that infamous author 
Tindal, etc., etc., — but you will have a better and more 
particular account by word of mouth, to which therefore I 
refer you, and am 

Your hearty friend and servant, 

J. Bereiman. 

Scotch Yard, August 31, 1733. 

Another letter from the same clergyman, written 
six months later, reveals the uneasiness which was 
then felt about the nomination to a vacant see of one 
who was accused of unsound theology, especially of 
Arianism, and of giving to portions of the Old Testa- 
ment an allegorical interpretation : — 

Deae. Sie, — .... Dean Berkeley was lately made 
a bishop in Ireland. There is a great bustle with us about 
the nomination of a new bishop to the See of Gloucester, the 
like to which I know not whether any history can parallel. 
There is one Dr. Rundle named by our new Lord Chancellor, 
son to the late Bishop of Durham (Talbot), to whom the 
Doctor was Chaplain. The Bishop of London makes a vigor- 
ous stand against him, and it is said twenty of the bishops 
have declared they will have no hand in his consecration. It 
is _ objected against him, that he has said these words, or to 
this effect, that Abraham was an old dotard, and that no 
man in his senses could beheve that God would command him 
to sacrifice his son. There are two clergymen, one of which 
is (Dr. Stebbing) preacher at Gray's Inn, and chaplain to 
the King, who will make good this charge against him upon 
oath, to prevent his confirmation ; though if the court will 
have it so, we reckon all opposition will be in vain. This 
matter has been a good while in suspense, and God only 
knows how it will end. He knows how to bring good out of 
evil, and may He order all for good. 

I am very heartily, yours, etc., 

Fe&.15, 1734. J. BeEEIMAK. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 85 

And Johnson replied as follows : — 

August 18, 1734. 
Dear Sm, — I very thankfully received yours of February 
15, and am deeply affected with the story you tell me about 
Dr. Rundle. It seems the enemies of Christianity are re- 
solved to leave ]io stone unturned in order to demolish it. 
This contrivance of endeavoring to furnish out the bench 
of bishops -with infidels, is a notable step, which I doubt not 
but they will further pursue as the times will bear it. I 
conclude the favorite doctor is consecrated before now, for 
I have since heard that all the foundation of the outcry 
against him, was only that he said there were some allego- 
ries in the Old Testament, and that he was horridly abused, 
and so it was likely to be hushed up. I shall be much obliged 
to you to let me know what is the true event of this affair, 
and who succeeds at York and Winchester, and is likely to 
succeed at Canterbury ; and what other events occur ; espe- 
cially about the progress of infidelity, which, with many other 
things, seems to have a most ominous aspect on our poor 
Church and nation. Notmthstanding infidelity, I hope the 
Church of England will yet more and more take root down- 
ward, and bear fruit upward in these American parts, where 
several dissenting ministers are, and many people have been 
hastening into her bosom. A worthy gentleman, one Mr. 
Arnold, has lately left them and come over to us ; he had 
been my successor ; he only wants to be encouraged by the 
Society (with whom things at present, I perceive, run pretty 
low) to come over for ordination ; in the mean time will do 
all the good he can in a lay capacity. My very humble 
service to the Doctor, Mr. Scullard, and all friends. 
I am, dear Sir, 

Your most affectionate friend and humble servant, 

S.J. 

A second letter from his friend touching the case of 
Dr. Rundle gives a fuller explanation of it, and has 
a postscript which shows the extent to which an in- 
fidel moralist in that age dared to proceed : — 



86 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Deak Sir, — Yours of Aug. last came safely to me by 
the post ; and since that I have had a packet from Dr. 
Cutler, in which came your second letter to a Dissenter, 
which I read over with great pleasure, and for which I now 
return you many thanks. You have had, I find, wrong ac- 
counts of Dr. Bundle's promotion, though before this you 
may have been set right by the public news. He did not 
get the Bishopric of Gloucester, at last, but since that dis- 
pute has got one of more than three times the value of that, 

which is Londonderry, Ireland. The great Sir R said he 

could not do without the Ch — 1 — r, and he must be obliged. 
I forgot whether I told you that Dr. R. had been charged 
with saying that Abraham was an old dotard and that no man 
could believe God should command him to sacrifice his son, 
and that Dr. Stebbing, chaplain to the King, and Mr. Venn, 
minister of S* Antholin's, were his accusers ; but besides this, 
the opposition he met with from the Bishop of London was 
grounded on strong suspicions of his being in the Arian 
scheme. 

The Abp. of York (Dr. Blackburn) is still living. Bp. 
Hoadly is translated from Sarum to Winchester, and 'tis 
thought as matters now stand, if Abp. Wake should die, the 
Bp. of London will go to Canterbury, though an altei'ation 
at Court may possibly give Dr. Sherlock the advantage. Dr. 
Benson is promoted to the See of Gloucester, and Dr. Seeker, 
who succeeded Dr. Clark at St. James's, is made Bp. of Bris- 
tol, the late Bp. Herring being translated to Bangor in the 
room of Bp. Sherlock, translated to Salisbury, and Dr. Flem- 
ing, late Dean of Carlisle, is made Bp. of that See in the room 
of Bp. Waugh, deceased. Benson and Seeker were Preben- 
daries of Durham, and both ('tis said) promoted to appease 
the Ch — 1 — r, but nothing would do till Bundle was made 
a bishop. 

I am, dear Sir, 

Your affectionate friend and humble servant, 

J. Bereiman. 

Scotch Yaud, Apr. 5, 1735. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 87 

There has been lately published a book here which strikes 
a note liigher in the scheme of infidel morality than perhaps 
you ever heard of, and that is to show fornication to be a 
necessary duty. Increase and multiply is the duty ; and 
adultery itseK is justified to promote this end, but besides all 
this the book is wrote in the grave way with prayers and 
praises and other instances of blasphemy. The bookseller 
is taken up by the King's messenger. The author is said in 
the title page to be a clergyman. I hear he is one of the 
Kirk of Scotland. 

The Church of England in Connecticut was sur- 
rounded from the beginning with bitter opponents. 
By this time others had followed the example of 
Johnson in leaving the Congregational ministry and 
conforming to Episcopacy, and among the people a 
spirit of religious inquiry had been awakened which 
it was not easy to check. The case of John Beach, 
born in Stratford and graduated at Yale College in 
1721, attracted much attention. For eight years he 
had been settled over the Independents or Congre- 
gationalists at Newtown, about twenty miles distant 
from the place of his nativity, and was a " popular 
and insinuating young man," but early in 1732, he 
publicly informed his people of a change in his views, 
and declared his determination to cross the Atlantic 
and receive holy orders in the Church of England. 
At the instance of his friends, he was sent back by the 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel with the 
appointment of a missionary in the town and vicin- 
ity where he had lately ministered and was so well 
known, beloved, and respected. The following extract 
from a letter of Johnson to the Bishop of London 
dated April 5, 1732, refers to his character and con- 
version : — 



88 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

.... My Lord, as the Church here has been very unfor- 
tunate in the defeat of the noble design of the Reverend the 
Dean of Londonderry, which, especially if it had been exe- 
cuted on the Continent, would have been of great advantage 
to the interest of religion and learning in America, so it has, 
on the other hand, been happy since in the conversion (be- 
sides a number of other good people) of the worthy persons 
who have all had a public education in the neighboring Col- 
lege, and two of them have been dissenting teachers ; two of 
them will go into other business, and one of them is Mr. 
Beach, the bearer hereof, whom I know, by long experience 
of him (he having been heretofore my pupil, and ever since 
my neighbor) to be a very ingenuous and studious person, 
and a truly serious and conscientious Christian ; but I forbear 
to say anything further of his case, and refer your Lordship 
to our joint recommendation of him. 

The conformity of Mr. Beach to Episcopacy, not- 
withstanding the admitted excellence of his character, 
stirred up his " congregationalist neighbors" more 
than any former defections from their ranks, and a 
sharp controversy arose which reached on through 
many years. There was much in the prevalent teach- 
ing of the day that savored of bigotry. The sin of 
covenant breaking was charged upon those who left 
the Congregational order, and Johnson drew up and 
published, partly at the instance of William Beach, a 
brother of the above named clergyman, a tract to meet 
this charge, and give plain reasons for conforming to 
the Church. He was answered by John Graham, a 
Presbyterian minister in Southbury, and a reply and 
rejoinder followed. The tracts of Johnson were in the 
form of " Letters from a Minister of the Church of 
England to his Dissenting Parishioners," and he wrote 
three of them, the second of which he began with 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 89 

paragraphs that outhne the history of the move- 
ment : — 

jSIy writing my former letter to take off the aspersions 
■which have been injuriously cast upon the Church, was 
principally occasioned by this very J. G., who, without any 
manner of provocation, had (as some of his friends have 
owned) written a scurrilous paper or verses which did most 
abominably misrepresent and abuse the Church, and tend to 
beget in people a very wrong notion of it, and a bitter un- 
charitable temper towards it ; and now, in spite of all the 
caution and tenderness wherewith I endeavored to conduct 
myself, both in my conversation and letter, is still resolved 
to go on reproaching and misrepresenting us, and setting us 
in all the odious and ridiculous lights he can invent. For 
my part, I sincerely aimed at reconciling the difference be- 
tween you and us, and composing our spirits as far as I was 
able, that if possible we might come at a right understanding 
of each other, and a good agreement ; or at least if we could 
not attain to think alike, that we might not think hardly, 
censoriously, or injuriously of each other, and might hve in 
tolerable good peace and charity one with another. But 
this man is resolved to set and keep us still at variance, and 
to blow up the fire of contention and uncharitableness, and 
all, forsooth, under the pretense of doing justice ! though 
you ^vill find by what follows, that his remarks are in truth 
one continued piece of injustice. 

As Johnson was the leading spirit among the Epis- 
copal clergy in the New England and northern col- 
onies, the defense of the Church fell to his pen, and 
it is surprising that he found time with all his mis- 
sionary duties to write so much and so ably. The 
people read the publications with avidity, and many 
who had hitherto beheved the Church to be full of 
" Popery, Arminianism, and the inventions of men," 
became acquainted with the Liturgy, and were so 



90 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

persuaded of its Scriptural character, that they with- 
drew from their former connections and attached 
themselves to the Anghcan Communion. His ability 
as a controversialist was early recognized on the other 
side, and the following curious letter from one of his 
friends pays him a compliment and gives a scrap of 
history worth preserving : — 

Eton College, Sept. 29, 1735. 

Dear Sir, — Dr. Cutler lately communicated to me your 
2d controversial letter, for which I am obliged to him and 
the author. It were to be wished, that a clergyman's atten- 
tion were not called off from the work of the ministry by the 
opposition of unreasonable men ; but I am glad the cause 
has found so able a defender. 

I send these lines by my friends who accompany Mr. 
Oglethorpe to Georgia ; they go purely out of a religious 
motive ; a circumstance not so common among our American 
Missionaries. They all are members of the University of 
Oxford, men of piety, learning, and zeal. Mr. John Wesley, 
Fellow of Lincoln College, Mr. Charles Wesley, student of 
Ch, Ch., Mr. Hall of Lincoln, and Mr. Salmon of Brazenose 
— all clergymen. We promise to ourselves much good from 
their pious endeavors under the assistance and influence of 
Mr. Oglethorpe, and that with regard both [to] the Indians 
to whom two of them go as missionaries, and to the colony 
itself. Your good offices in corresponding with them, and 
advising and assisting them in any respect, would be kindly 
accepted by them and me. 

I continue still a member of the University, though not 
Fellow of C. C. C. I am Fellow of Eton Coll : near Wind- 
sor, and have a good living between that place and Oxford. 
If in any respect I can be serviceable to you, my best offices 
are at your command. 

Your affectionate friend. 

John Bueton. 



OF SAJNIUEL JOHNSON. 91 

In answering this letter which reached him about 
a year after its date, Johnson said it would be " a 
mighty pleasure " to him, indeed, if he were so sit- 
uated as to converse or hold any correspondence with 
"gentlemen of so worthy a character;" but as the 
distance from New England to Georgia was not much 
short of a thousand miles, and no trade as yet settled 
between the colonies, there was little prospect that he 
could render them essential service. He added at the 
close of his letter : " I thank you also for the candor 
you express towards the poor performance Dr. Cutler 
sent you. Controversy is what I have neither tal- 
ents nor inclination for, but the most abusive mis- 
representations of the Church which our adversaries 
disseminate among the people has made something 
of this kind in a manner necessary." 



92 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 



CHAPTER V. 

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE ; MEMORIAL TO THE GENERAL AS- 
SEMBLY OF CONNECTICUT ; LETTERS TO BERKELEY ; WHITE- 
FIELD IN NEW ENGLAND AND RELIGIOUS ENTHUSIASM; COM- 
PLAINT TO THE COMMISSARY ; THE CLERGY OF CONNECTICUT 
PETITIONING FOR A RESIDENT COMMISSARY, AND ASKING THAT 
JOHNSON BE APPOINTED ; DOCTOR'S DEGREE PROM THE UNI- 
VERSITY OF OXFORD. 

A. D. 1736-1743. 

Besides his extensive correspondence in this coun- 
try, upon Johnson devolved the chief duty of com- 
municating with friends at home, and keeping them 
informed of everything here that concerned the gen- 
eral prosperity of the Church. His letters -"^ to the 
Bishops and to the Secretary of the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel are numerous, and, for that 
period, minute in their details. He watched every 
movement that bore hardly upon the labors of the 
missionaries, and promptly suggested means of redress 
and encouragement. He advocated without ceasing 
the appointment of bishops for America, as the best 
plan of settling the Church upon a sure foundation, 
and saving it from the reproach of enemies. This 
thought was so constantly in his mind that he some- 
times felt obliged to apologize for referring to it, as 
the following letter from the Bishop of Gloucester 
will show, written under date of — 

^ See Church Documents, Connecticut, vols. i. and ii., and author's History of Epis- 
copal Church in Connecticut, vol. i. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 93 

London, MarcTi 9, 173|. 

Sir, — You needed no apology for any application you 
could make to me in relation to anything wherein you might 
think me capable of serving the Church in America. I wish 
my capacity were equal to my desire of doing it. No one 
is more sensible of the difficulties in general you labor 
under in those parts, and in particular of those you complain 
of for want of a bishop residing among you. My own interest 
to be sure is inconsiderable ; but the united interests of the 
bishops here is not powerful enough to effect so reasonable 
and right a thing as the sending some bishops into America. 
The person whom you have sent hither to be ordained is 
a very sensible, and seems to be a serious man, and it is 
plain that he came over with no view to his private inter- 
ests ; his only motive could be to embrace what he thought to 
be right, and his only desire now seems to be to be rendered 
as serviceable as possible to the Church of Christ. I wish we 
could have sent him back to you in a post and with a salary 
better suited to his deserts ; but however small the salary 
may seem, the income of the Society is so very low at pres- 
ent, that we were forced to break through some of our 
rules and regulations to allot this salary small as it is. I 
wrote a letter to the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford to recom- 
mend these gentlemen ^ to the University for the favor of a 
Degree, and I have since received a letter from him to ac- 
quaint me that the degree of Master of Arts is by Diploma 
conferred upon each of them. I wish Mr. Caner, who has the 
character from you and every one of a very deserving man, 
might acquire a better state of health by his journey hither. 

The Bishop of Cloyne has for some time been in a very 
bad state of health, but by a letter I have just received 
from him I have the pleasure to hear he is better than he 
was. 

I am, Sir, 

Your faithful servant and affectionate Brother, 

M. Gloucester. 

1 Jonathan Arnold and Rev. Henry Caner. 



94 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

The plea was early set up, and it had its influence 
with the home government, that the establishment of 
bishops in America would lead to an independence 
of the Colonies. Allusion is made to this, and the 
idea spurned in a letter of Johnson to the Bishop of 
London, written — 

Nov, 3, 1738. 

My Lord, — I most humbly thank your Lordship for your 
kind letter of February 3d, and in answer to it can only la- 
ment the unhappiness of the times, and that it is not even in 
your Lordship's power to do those great and good services 
to the Church in general and here in America in particu- 
lar, which you would gladly and have faithfully labored to 
do. All I can say is, that though it is a most unaccounta- 
ble way of reasoning to conclude in us Americans any dis- 
position towards an independency on our mother country 
from our general desire of bishops to preside over us, — the 
reverse of which is the truth, — yet since it is thus (and 
doubtless there are many more instances as strange as this 
in the reasoning of this desperate age), we must patiently 
submit and wait upon Providence till it shall please God 
to enlighten the minds of men, and send us better times. 
I have delayed the longer to acknowledge your Lordship's 
kind letter, because I was willing to wait the issue of an 
affair that has been in agitation among us, which I expected 
to have given your Lordship an account of myself, but 
since Mr. Arnold ^ is obliged to go home this fall on that 

1 Jonathan Arnold, the successor of Samuel Johnson in the Congregational minis- 
try at West Haven, conformed to Episcopacy in 1734, and afterwards went to Eng- 
land where he received holy orders, as may be learned from the Bishop of Glouces- 
ter's letter on the preceding page. He was not lost, as has been sometimes stated, on 
a second voyage to England in 1739. He did not go home on the " affairs " referred 
to above, but removed to Staten Island, N. Y., where he became tiie Society's mis- 
sionary in charge of St. Andrew's Church. See History of Episcopal Church in 
Connecticut, vol. i. c. viii. Complaints against Mr. Arnold by the wardens and ves- 
trymen were transmitted to the Society, and by an order bearing date June 21, 
1745, he was " dismissed from being their missionary to the Church of St. Andrew." 
The Rev. T. B. Chandler writing to the Rev. Dr. Johnson from Elizabethtown, 
February 2(i, 1753, said: "I had the pleasure of receiving your favor of January 
29, and am sorry to tell j'ou that Mr. Arnold did nothing in his will for his children 
in New England. Mrs. Arnold was left sole executrix, and everything her hus- 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 95 

and some other affairs, I beg leave to refer your Lordship 
to our joint address to your Lordship, and remain — may it 
please your Lordship — yours, etc., S. J. 

Any letter from Johnson to a friend in London, 
was sure to be welcomed, and few young men went 
over for holy orders, who did not deem it necessary 
to take from him a note of introduction. His old as- 
sociate in the first struggle for Episcopacy in Con- 
necticut — Dr. Cutler — solicited his good offices, 
when he was about to send his son, a graduate of 
Harvard College in 1732, on the same errand which 
had carried them to England many years before. 
The answer which one of his correspondents returned 
is a matter of historic interest : — 

Dear Sir, — I had the favor of yours of September last 
by Mr. Cutler ; who intends to make a longer stay vnth. us 
than you thought of. He has had the good fortune to get a 
curacy of <£50 per annum in Essex, about 30 miles from Lon- 
don, where he may live cheap and save money to buy books, 
and he will have a very great advantage in conversing a 
good part of the year with his Rector, Dr. Walker, a very 
ingenious and learned man, who will assist him vastly in 
critical learning, and furnish him for the present with all 
sorts of books he has occasion for. Dr. MacSparran has 
been honored with a Degree by the University of Oxford, 
and might to be sure go on it ad eundem at Cambridge, but 
I believe he will scarce have time to go thither. I hear 
with much pleasure that he has prevailed with the Bp. of 
London to appoint Mr. Checkley a missionary, and hope we 
shall soon see him here in London. 

band died possessed of was left to her disposal. However, she says she is willing 
that his children in New England should come in for shares with her own child in 
whatsoever he left in your parts; and I believe she will not recall it. As to the tem- 
per of mind in which Mr. Arnold left the world, I find that he had his reason for 
some months before his death, which he retained to the last. But I have not heard 
what remarks or reflections he made on his past life, and what was the moral dispo- 
sition of his mind." — MS. Letter. 



96 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Your good friend the Bp. of Oxford is translated to Can- 
terbury, to the universal satisfaction of almost everybody. 
Dr. Lisle at Bow might have succeeded him, but declined it, 
and the general expectation is that Dr. Seeker, Bp. of Bris- 
tol, will be removed to Oxford, to make way for Dr. Gooch 
to go to Bristol, who (according to custom) could not be Bp. 
of Oxford as being a Cambridge man. Dr. Gooch is brother- 
in-law to Bp. Sherlock (of Salisbury), whom now in con- 
junction with the Abp. of Canterbury we reckon to be at the 
head of ecclesiastical affairs, — perhaps I should add here 
with us, for with you to be, sure the Bp. of London is and 
must be at the head. 

I am, dear Sir, 

Your assured friend and humble servant. 

J. Beeeiman. 
Scotch Yard, Apr. 14, 1737. 

Johnson was a great reader, and no new publica- 
tion of any merit appeared in England which he did 
not immediately send for. In one of his letters to 
Mr. Berriman he said : " I am particularly thankful 
for the intelligence you have given me about books, 
a subject I shall always be glad our correspondence 
may turn upon, for I want very much to know what 
passes among the learned world." Intelligent people 
at that period read solid works, and he was ever ready 
to lend anything that he possessed to those who 
were earnest seekers of the truth. In the following 
note to Mr. Berriman, there is an allusion for the 
first time to one whose movements in this country 
were soon to fill him with watchfulness and anx- 
iety : — 

Sept. 10, 1739. 
Deae S IE, -^ Your kind letter of January 10, 1789, came 
not to my hands till some time this summer. I am very 
inuch obliged to you for it, and for your care in procuring 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 97 

and sending Parker's " Eusebius," which I desired Mr. Cut- 
ler to get for me to make up my set, having had the first 
vohnne burnt in a house where I had lent it. 

I have not seen Mr. Checkley ^ since his arrival, but hear 
he is like to be very useful at Providence. I have nothing 
remarkable to tell you from hence. Though the Church here 
is very ill-treated by these dissenting governments, yet it 
daily increases. I should be glad to know from you what is 
the general sense of the clergy about Mr. Whitefield and his 
proceedings, of which our newspapers are generally filled. 

1 John Checkley, born of English parents in the city of Boston, 1G80, finished his 
studies at the University of Oxford, and afterwards travelled over the greatest part 
of Europe. As the reader has already seen, he was with Johnson in London in 1723, 
and upon returning to this country published a pamphlet entitled: A Modest Proof 
of the Order and Government settled by Christ and his ApostJes in the Church.'''' It 
was the forerunner of the controversy upon Episcopacy on this continent, and un- 
doubtedly had the approval and encouragement of Cutler and Johnson. The author 
of a reply. Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, observed that it was said to be reprinted at 
Boston, but he did not remember that he had ever seen any former edition. 

A second edition of the reply together with an appendix, called. Remarks on some 
part of Mr. P. Barclay' s Persuasive, soon appeared. The latter was by the Rev. 
Thomas Foxcroft, a Presbyterian divine of Boston, who invited Johnson to afriendly 
discussion of the claims of Episcopacy, and wrote him two long letters, one in June 
and the other in August, 1726, besides sending him books and a pamphlet, entitled 
A Vindication, etc. Careful answers were returned to these letters, and in one of 
them, referring to the Vindication, Johnson said: " If you could not be satisfied with- 
out seeing some remarks upon this performance, — there is a gentleman in j-our neigh- 
borhood, far more able than I am, who if he were addressed in that gentlemanly and 
friendly Christian manner, wherewith j-ou seem to aim at treating me, would, I doubt 
not, do it to your satisfaction, and with as much Christian friendly temper, fnodera- 
tion, and forbearance, as you can wish for from me; notwithstanding that he is so 
injuriously dressed up like a morose furioso, in the imaginations of your people, and 
notwithstanding the ungentlemanlj^, unchristian treatment he meets with among 
you." 

The pamphlet, A Modest Proof, etc., was followed by a republication of Leslie's 
"Short and Easy Method with the Deists, to which was annexed a Discourse concerning 
Episcopacy, sold by John Checkley." For this he was arrested as a libeler, tried be- 
fore a jury, and mulcted in fifty pounds to the king, and costs of prosecution, with 
securities for his good behavior for six months. Checkley reprinted his Discourse 
Concerning Episcopacy in 1728, in London, whither he went for holy orders — but 
obstacles were thrown in his way, and he returned without accomplishing his pur- 
pose. His desire to serve God in the ministry of the Church was unqnenched, and 
again, when he was on the verge of threescore years, he crossed the ocean, and was 
ordained by the Bishop of Exeter, and appointed a missionary to Providence, R. I., 
where he officiated till his death, which occurred in 17ii3. His son John graduated at 
Harvard College, in 1738, and went to England for ordination; but fell a victim to 
the small-pox, and died during his sojourn abroad, in 1743. 
7 



98 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

There has been very much such a stir among the Dissenters 
in some parts of this country as he makes in England. 
I am, sir, yours, etc. 

S. J. 

The members and professors of the Church of Eng- 
land living in Connecticut were aggrieved by an act 
of the Colonial legislature, whereby the proceeds aris- 
ing from the sale of certain lands were designated for 
the sole benefit of the Congregational ministers and 
people. They complained of the injustice of denying 
them a share in the public moneys for the support 
of their ministers, and a memorial was . sent to the 
General Assembly, signed by nearly seven hundred 
males attached to the Church of England, and asking 
for themselves equal privileges and protection. This 
memorial, which carefully recited no less than seven 
reasons why the legislative action should be amended, 
was drawn up by Johnson as were all siniilar memo- 
rials prepared during his lifetime, and having refer- 
ence to the rights of Churchmen in Connecticut. He 
apprised his friends in England of these movements, 
and. sought their advice whenever he was in any per- 
plexity. The College at New Haven continued to in- 
terest him, and not only his affection for it, but his 
agency in securing important donations, led him to 
watch its progress and attend the public examinations 
in Greek and Latin, to which he was invited as the 
senior Episcopal Missionary in the colony, according 
to the terms of Berkeley's gift. So early as 1735, the 
Bishop of Cloyne wrote him, expressing great pleasure 
to find that a member of his own family, Benjamin 
NicoU, had won distinction as a " scholar of the house," 
and he added a few words to indicate something of his 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 99 

design in founding the scholarship : " One principal 
end proposed by me was to promote a better under- 
standing with the Dissenters, and so by degrees to les- 
sen their dislike to our communion ; to which end me- 
tho Light the improving their minds with liberal studies 
might greatly conduce, as I am very sensible that your 
own discreet behavior and manner of living towards 
them, hath very much forwarded the same effect." 
The subject of the memorial was the "affair" upon 
which the Connecticut Clergy jointly addressed the 
Bishop of London ; and Johnson wrote to Berkeley 
about it, and about the treatment of Mr. Arnold, more 
pointedly, when in the following letter he reported " a 
good struggle for the scholarship : " — 

May 14, 1739. 

May it please your Lordship, — I humbly thank 
your Lordship for your very obHging letter of May 11, 1738, 
which came not to my hands till precisely that day twelve 
months after it was written, and in the very interim when 
(having lately attended on the examination of the scholars at 
Yale College for jomy Lordship's premium) T was meditat- 
ing to write to your Lordship and give you some account of 
the condition of things ^.mong us ; which is as follows : We 
had a good struggle this year for the scholarship, and it is 
very agreeable to see to what perfection classical learning 
is advanced in comparison with what it was before your 
Lordship's donation to this College, though I cannot say it 
has much increased for these two years past, and I doubt it 
is got to something of a stand. Another son of Mr. Williams 
has got it this year, who had manifestly the advantage of the 
rest ; but I think none have ever performed to so great per- 
fection as one Whittelsey last year, who is son of a neighbor- 
ing minister, whose performance was very extraordinary, not 
only for the scholarship, but also for books purchased with 
some money that had been forfeited by the resignation of 
Leonard. 



100 LIFE A^D CORRESPONDENCE 

I am very sorry to tell your Lordship how ungrateful 
New Haven people have been to the Church after so many 
benefactions their College hath received from that quarter, in 
raising a mob and keeping Mr. Arnold vi et m-mis from tak- 
ing possession of the land, which, as I told your Lordship in 
my last, one Mr. Gregson of London had given him to build 
a church on near the College.^ 

Another instance of injurious treatment the Church has 
lately met with from this ungrateful country has been in the 
General Assembly denying a most reasonable petition as laid 
before them last year. The case was this : all the lands with- 
in the bounds of this Government [Connecticut] were by 
charter alike granted to all the inhabitants, without limita- 
tion to those of any particular denomination in matters of 
religion. Now of these lands there remained a sufficient 
quantity for seven new townships, which were lately laid out 
and ordered to be sold, and the money (amounting to about 
X 70,000) to be considered as the common right of the whole 
community. When it was considered how to dispose of it, it 
was at length concluded that it should be divided proportion- 
ally to each town, according to their estates, for the support 
of dissenting teachers ; whereby the Church people, who had 
manifestly a right to their proportion of it, were excluded. 
Whereupon we presented our humble address to the Assem- 
bly, signed by every male of the Church in the Government 

1 In a pamphlet entitled A Vindication of the Bishop of Landaff's Sermon from 
the Gross Misrepresentations and Abusive Reflections contained in Mr. Wm. Living- 
ston^s Letter to his Lordship, published in 1768, the author, after speaking, page 40, of 
the treatment of the Society's Missionaries in New England, saj's: " Perhaps J/r. 
Livinc/sion may remember some instances of this himself ; once especially in a gal- 
lant exploit performed by the students of Yale College, in which he was more than a 
spectator. The scene of this nuhle action was a lot of ground in the town of New 
Haven, which had been bequeathed to the CnuRCn for the use of a missionary. 
There these magnanimous champions signalized themselres; for once upon a time, 
quitting soft dalliance with the muses, they roughened into sons of Mars, and issu- 
ing forth in deep and firm array, with courage bold and undaunted, they not only at- 
tacked, but bravely routed a yoke of oxen and a poor Plowman, which had been 
eent by the then Missionar}- of New Haven, to occupy and plow up the said lot of 
ground. An exploit truly worthy of the renowned Hudibras himself ! " The pam- 
phlet, though published anonymously, was written by Dr. Inglis of New York, 
afterwards first Lord Bishop of Nova Scotia. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 101 

above sixteen, to the number of about seven hundred, praying 
we might have our proportion in these pubUc moneys. But 
they were pleased to pass a negative upon it ; and I should be 
very thankful for your Lordship's advice whether it be worth 
our while to apply to the King and Council on this affair. 

I heartily rejoice with your Lordship in the health and 
prosperity of your lady and family, and am no less grieved 
for the illness you labor under, in your own person. I sin- 
cerely pray, God remove it, and give you health. 

Good Dr. Cutler is in great grief, having lately lost a 
very hopeful son, nigh of age for Orders. Mr. Honyman 
has been till lately very much indisposed with grief for the 
loss of his spouse, but is within these few months recovered 
and married again to one Mrs. Brown, an elderly gentle- 
woman, mother to Capt. Brown of Newport. With our 
humble duty to your lady, 

I remain, may it please your Lordship, etc. 

S. J. 

All letters to his English correspondents at this 
period allude to the action of the General Assembly, 
and in some of them, he speaks of the fickleness of 
Mr. Arnold and his removal to Staten Island. In 
writing to Dr. Astry, April 10, 1740, he said : "I am 
sorry the Society found themselves under a necessity 
of removing him to any other mission, though I con- 
fess he has not conducted so discreetly of late, espe- 
cially since he had an intimation of it, as I could wish, 
and I fear the Church in these parts will much suf- 
fer on this occasion. At least his people falling of 
course again under my care will be a very great ad- 
dition to my burden." 

The memorialists were not disheartened by the re- 
fusal to grant their petition, and the clergy renewed 
it so earnestly that at last, rather than let the Church 



102 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

have its share, a proposition to repeal was adopted, 
and the proceeds of the sale of the lands bj a former 
act went to the maintenance of popular education. 
Johnson writing to the Bishop of Clojne shortly 
before the repeal took place, referred to the me- 
morial once more, but seemed to be hopeless of any 
redress : — 

June 20, 1740. 

My Lord, — I did myself the honor to write to you 
about a year ago, and ackowledged yours of May 11, 1738, 
and gave you some account of the condition of things among 
us in this Colony, and especially the College, which is so much 
indebted to your Lordship, that I think it is but fit that your 
Lordship should, at least once a year, have some account of 
the success of your generous donation to it ; and this I hope 
vnll apologize for my troubling your Lordship once in a while 
with some account of our ajEf airs which otherwise would not 
deserve your notice. 

Our College has been in a very unsettled position this 
last year, which perhaps may be the reason that there has 
not this May appeared quite so good a proficiency in clas- 
sical learning as heretofore (though very considerable com- 
pared with what used to be), there having been an interreg- 
num of seven or eight months wherein it has had no Rector. 
Mr. Williams had been much out of health for some months, 
and last fall was persuaded it was owing to his sedentary life 
and the sea-side air, and accordingly took up a resolution, 
from which he would not be dissuaded, to retire up into the 
country, where he has lived ever since, and where, indeed, he 
seems to have enjoyed his health better ; though some people 
are so censorious as to judge that, considering the age and de- 
clining state of our Governor, his chief aim was to put him- 
self in the way of being chosen into that post. But if this 
was his view, it is not unlikely that he may be disappointed, 
for upon a considerable struggle last election for a new Gov- 
ernor, he had but few votes, and Mr. Eliot had a vast many 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 103 

move than a,ll other competitors put together, and will doubt- 
less succeed whenever there is a new choice. However, Mr. 
Williams was a Representative and Speaker in their Assembly, 
and was made one of the Judges of the Superior Court, and 
may possibly get to be one of the Council or Assistants, which 
is, I believe, the utmost he will attain to. 

Upon his leaving the College the Trustees have ap- 
pointed one Mr. Clap, late minister of Windham, to succeed, 
who seems to be a well tempered gentleman and of good 
sense and much of a mathematician, and though he is not so 
well acquainted with the classics as might be wished, I hope 
he will improve much in that and all other points of learn- 
ing, and prove a good governor to the College. 

We have again applied to the Assembly about the seven 
new townships, that I mentioned to your Lordship in my last, 
and nothing has yet been done. Next October will be the 
last time of asking, but I do not expect they will finally grant 
our petition. However, the Church greatly increases, espe- 
cially in the town. But I grow tedious, and will not add 
any further save my earnest prayers for your lady and family, 
to whom my very humble duty. I beg your prayers, and re- 
main, my Lord, your Lordship's, etc. S. J. 

The arrival in New England in the autumn of 1740 
of the Rev. George Whitefield was followed by an out- 
burst of great religious enthusiasm. He had been 
ordained by the Bishop of Gloucester, and, before 
coming to this country, had given specimens of the 
extraordinary power and erratic zeal for which he was 
afterwards so celebrated. There had been " very 
much such a stir among the Dissenters " in some of 
the Colonies as he had made in England, and the 
people, therefore, were ripe for his extravagances, 
and crowded around him when he preached in the 
open air or in the meeting-houses. He soon put 
himself beyond the sympathy and sanction of the 



104 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

bishops and clergy of the Church, whose doctrines, 
worship, and disciphne he was ordained to defend ; and 
the more bitter his invectives against them became, 
the more earnestly did his adherents among the Inde- 
pendent or Congregational ministers encourage his 
work and promote his irregularities. No doubt man}^ 
of them regarded him as an angel of light in human 
form, raised up by Divine Providence to awaken sin- 
ners to repentance, to seriousness of life, and the prac- 
tice of virtue ; and there is reason to believe that his 
preaching 'in several instances was attended with 
blessed results. But those who welcomed and caressed 
him with the idea that his course was calculated to 
check among their people a growing attachment to 
the doctrines and worship of the Church, discovered 
at length that so far from this, it shattered and divided 
their own churches, and in the end rapidly increased 
and strengthened the communion which they ex- 
pected to see dwindle and die. 

Whitefield had his imitators as well as his followers 
— preachers who undertook to adopt his style and 
imitate his dramatic action, and who travelled about 
from place to place seeking to make converts, and 
disregarding all ecclesiastical rights and regulations. 
Then came a set of lay-exhorters who added to the 
popular confusions and fomented the flames which had 
been kindled. Johnson carefully watched the progress 
of things and was at the head of his clerical brethren 
in guiding and steadying the Church through such 
great and manifold perils. He wrote to the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, and the Bishops of Gloucester, 
London, and Cloyne to acquaint them with the 
strange commotions in Connecticut, growing out of 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 105 

Whitefield's itinerancy. It will be sufficient to quote 
only his letter to Berkeley, which contains other ref- 
erences, and is dated : — 

Oct. 3, 1741. 

My Lord, — This comes to your Lordship upon occa- 
sion of our recommending to the Society, Mr. Richard Caner 
(brother to my good neighbor Mr. Henry Caner, Missionary 
to Fairfield, of whom you may possibly retain some remem- 
brance), who well deserves the Society's notice on this oc- 
casion. I have the pleasure to inform your Lordship that 
upon the occasion of our new Rector, Mr. Clap, and his ap- 
plication to the business of the College, we have the satis- 
faction to see classical as well as mathematical learning im- 
prove among us ; there having been a better appearance the 
last May than what I gave yoiu' Lordship an account of be- 
fore ; for this gentleman proves a solid, rational, good man, 
and much freer from bigotry than his predecessor. 

But this new enthusiasm, in consequence of Whitefield's 
preaching through the country and his disciples', has got 
great footing in the College as well as throughout the coun- 
try. Many of the scholars have been possessed of it, and two 
of this year's candidates were denied their degrees for their 
disorderly and restless endeavors to propagate it. Indeed 
Whitefield's disciples have in this country much improved 
upon the foundation which he laid ; so that we have now 
prevailing among us the most odd and unaccountable enthu- 
siasm that perhaps ever obtained in any age or nation. For 
not only the minds of many people are at once struck with 
prodigious distresses upon their hearing the hideous outcry of 
our itinerant preachers, but even their bodies are frequently 
in a moment affected with the strangest convulsions and 
involuntary agitations and cramps, which also have some- 
times happened to those who came as mere spectators, and 
are no friends to their new methods, and even without their 
minds being at all affected. The Church, indeed, has not, 
as yet, much suffered, but rather gained by these commo- 
tions, which no men of sense of either denomination have 



106 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

at all given in to, but it has required great care and pains 
in our clergy to prevent the mischief. How far God may 
permit this madness of the people to proceed, He only 
knows. But I hope that neither religion nor learning will 
in the whole event of things much suffer by it. 

I humbly beg an interest in your Lordship's prayers and 
blessing, and remain etc., 

S.J. 

In a similar strain he wrote to his friend, Dr. Astrj, 
two days before, and spoke of the necessity, if pos- 
sible, of an increase in the number of missionaries, at 
the same time that he entreated him to be present 
at the meeting of the Society when the application 
of Mr. Caner was presented. The reply of Dr. Astry 
deserves a place in this connection : — 

Rev. Sir, — I had the favor of your letter by Mr. Caner, 
and have out of regard to your recommendation of him at- 
tended the Board whilst his business was depending. I 
hope and believe that you will find him satisfied with what 
has been done there in compliance with his request ; and 
that he will do me the justice with you to bear testimony 
that he found me disposed to help him what I could. It 
would have been agreeable to my inclinations to have had 
more of his company. But the hurry of his affairs and 
haste to return to you, have been a bar to that satisfaction. 
As to his going to Oxford, he mentioned it not to me, and 
indeed I declined entering into it with him, for that I have 
very little acquaintance left in the University, and accord- 
ingly had little prospect of being instrumental in getting 
him a degree there, had he attempted it. 

I lament the vexations you have had by means of that 
strange fellow Whitefield, and his successors. But as I find 
by you that the Church has not in the main suffered so 
much as might have been apprehended, and was designed 
by those who maliciously set them to work, one has reason 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 107 

to be content and to thank God that things are no worse. 
And I have the pleasure to think that among my friends in 
your parts, there are men capable of deaUng with them so 
as to stop their progress, if not to bring good out of evil. 
I heartily pray that your endeavors may have that effect, 
the rather because the Society is very little in a condition 
to send you more fellow-helpers at present, however your 
occasions may require more. That they have added one 
in Mr. Caner ^ I am very glad, as I see in him all good dis- 
positions to answer the ends of his mission. My wife re- 
turns her compliments to you and yours, and I am with grat- 
itude, Sir, 

Your affectionate friend and servant, 

Fr. Astky. 
St. James's Place, Fei. 8, 1741-2. 

A bitter and uncharitable spirit grew out of the 
religious enthusiasm consequent upon the intinerancy 
of Whitefield. Divines of the standing order were 
divided — part sympathizing with the new light, and 
part stoutly maintaining a continuance in the old 
ways and opposing innovations. The odium theolog- 
icum was never more fierce, and any attempt to 
restrain it proved unavailing. Large numbers of 
sober and thoughtful persons in Connecticut, dis- 
gusted with the extravagances of the time and finding 
in Congregationalism no rest from strife and dissen- 
sion, broke away from their former associations, and 
fled for comfort and quietness to the bosom of the 
Church of England. This excited in an unhappy de- 
gree the displeasure of her opponents, and harsh judg- 
ments and irritating reflections fell upon the mission- 
aries and upon the doctrines of the communion which 
they were appointed to teach and maintain. 

1 He was appointed a missionan' to Norwalk, Ct., and transferred to the charge of 
St. Andrew's Ch. Staten Island, 1745, upon the dismission of Mr. Arnold, but died 
of small-pox in New York, Dec. 14, 1745. 



108 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Johnson was brought into sharp conflict with, Mr, 
Gold, the dissenting minister in Stratford, and a cor- 
respondence was carried on between them which in- 
volved very important principles as well as dangerous 
precedents. It had been said of him that he was 
not converted, nor any of the Church of England 
people in Stratford ; that he was a thief, and robber 
of churches, and had no business in the place ; that 
his church doors stood open to all mischief and wick- 
edness, and other words of like import, which could 
only be uttered in the heats of angry passion or re- 
ligious excitement. He was not willing to rest under 
these charges without calling the author to account, 
and so he addressed him a letter, which speaks for 
itself, dated, — 

July 6, 1741. 

SlE, — .... I thought it my duty to write a few lines to 
you, in the spirit of Christian meekness, on this subject. And 
I assure you I am nothing exasperated at these hard censures, 
much less will I return them upon you. No Sir ! God for- 
bid I should censure you as you censure me ! I have not 
so learned Christ ! I mil rather use the words of my dear 
Saviour concerning those that censure so, and say, " Father, 
forgive them, for they know not what they do." 

As to my having no business here, I will only say that 
to me it appears most evident that I have as much business 
here at least as you have, — being appointed by a Society 
in England incorporated by Royal Charter to provide min- 
isters for the Church people in America ; nor does his Maj- 
esty'- allow of any establishment here, exclusive of the Church, 
much less of anything that should preclude the Society he 
has incorporated from providing and sending ministers to 
the Church , people in these countries. And as to my being 
a robber of churches, I appeal to God and all his people, 
of both denominations, whether I have ever uncharitably 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 109 

censured you, or said or done anything to disaffect or disunite 
your people from you, as on many occasions I might have 
done ; on the other hand^whether I have not on all occasions 
put people upon making the kindest constructions possible 
upon your proceedings, and whether there has ever been 
anything in mine or my people's conduct that could be 
justly interpreted to savor of spite or malice, though we 
have met with much of it from some of our neighbors. 

If any of your people have left you, I appeal to them 
whether it has been owing to any insinuations of mine, and 
whether it has not been many times owing to your own 
conducting otherwise than in prudence you might have done, 
that they have been led to inquire, and upon inquiring to 
conform to this Church. And pray why have not Dissent- 
ers here as much liberty to go to church, if they see good 
reason for it (as they will soon do if they seriously inquire), 
as Church people to go to meeting if they see fit, as some 
have done, without my charging you so highly ? In short, 
all I have done which could be the occasion of any people 
leaving you, has been to vindicate our best of churches from 
the injurious misrepresentations she has labored under from 
you and others ; and this it was my bounden duty to do. 
And indeed I shall think myself obliged in conscience to 
take yet more pains with Dissenters as well as Church people 
than I have ever yet done, if I see them in danger of being 
, misled by doctrines so contrary to the very truth and spirit 
of the Gospel as have lately been preached among us up 
and down in this country. 

And as to my Church being open to all wickedness, I ap- 
peal to God and all that know me and my proceedings 
whether I have not as constantly borne witness against all 
kinds of ^vickedness as you have, and been as far from pat- 
ronizing it as you have been, and must think my people are 
generally as serious and virtuous as yours. And lastly as 
to your censuring me and my people as being unconverted, 
etc., I will only beg you to consider whether you act the 
truly Christian part in thus endeavormg to disaffect my peo- 



110 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

pie towards my ministrations, and weaken and render abor- 
tive my endeavors for the good of their souls, when I know 
not that I have given you any occasion to judge me uncon- 
verted, — much less to set me out in such a formidable 
light to them. However, I leave these things, Sir, to your se- 
rious consideration, and beg you will either take an opportu- 
nity to converse with me where and when you please, or 
rather return me a few lines, wherein (as you have judged 
me unconverted, etc.) I entreat you will plainly give me your 
reasons why you think me so ; for as bad as I am, I hope I 
am open to conviction, and earnestly desirous not to be mis- 
taken in an affair of so great importance, and the rather 
because I have not only my own, but many other souls to 
answer for, whom I shall doubtless mislead if I am misled 
myself. In compassion, therefore, to them and me, pray be 
so kind as to give us your reasons why you think us in such 
a deplorable condition. 

In hopes of which I remain. Sir, your real well-wisher and 
humble servant, S. J. 

Eeplies and rejoinders followed in quick succes- 
sion, and though Mr. Gold denied having used the 
severe language attributed to him, yet he appears to 
have retained his uncharitable feelings, and to have 
been as far as ever from understanding the true 
teachings and doctrines of the Church of England., 
His last letter to Johnson should be quoted, if for no 
other reason, at least to show the spirit which pos- 
sessed the most ardent and enthusiastic followers of 
Whitefield : — 

Sir, — I don't wonder that a man is not afraid of sin- 
ning that believes he has power in himself to repent when- 
ever he pleases, nor is it strange for one who dares to utter 
falsehoods of others to be ready at any time to confirm them 
with the solemnity of an oath, — especially since he adheres 
to a minister whom he believes has power to wash him from 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. HI 

all his sins by a full and final absolution upon his saying he 
is sorry for them, etc. ; and as for the pleas which you make 
for Col. Lewis, and others that have broke away disorderly 
from our Church, I think there's neither weight nor truth in 
them ; nor do I believe such poor shifts will stand them nor 
you in any stead in the awful day of account ; and as for 
your sajdng that as bad as you are yet you lie open to convic- 
tion, — for my part I find no reason to think you do, seeing 
you are so free and full in denying plain matters of fact ; 
and as for your notion about charity from that 1 Cor. 
xiii., my opinion is that a man may abound with love to God 
and man, and yet bear testimony against disorderly walkers, 
without being in the least guilty of the want of charity to- 
wards you. What ! must a man be judged uncharitable 
because he don't think well nor uphold the willful miscar- 
riages and evil doings of others ? This is surely a perverse 
interpretation of the Apostle's meaning. I don't think it 
worth my while to say anything further in the affair, and as 
you began the controversy against rule or justice, so I hope 
modesty will induce you to desist ; and do assure you that 
if you see cause to make any more replies, my purpose is, 
without reading of them, to put them under the pot among 
my other thorns and there let one flame quench the matter. 
These, Sir, from your sincere friend and servant in all things 
lawful and laudable, Hez. Gold. 

Stratford, July 21, 1741. 

Johnson waited ten days, and then concluded to 
" venture the sacrifice of one letter more," in vindi- 
cation of himself and his people. He would not 
bear the imputation of having opened a controversy 
thus closed upon him, but he was chieiay anxious, for 
the sake of the truth, to disabuse the mind of his 
neighbor of the idea that the Church of England 
holds and teaches that a man has power in himself 
to repent when he pleases, and that the minister has 



112 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

power to wash him from all his sins by a full and 
final absolution upon his only saying he is sorry for 
them. These two pii^opositions he regarded as so 
false and mischievous to the souls of men, that if the 
Church taught or practiced according to them he 
owned he would " abhor and fly from her as from the 
face of a serpent." " As our absolution," he added, 
" is nothing else but the declaration of God's pardon 
to all true penitents, so we hold no absolution in any 
other sense than you do yourself. Pray, Sir, Avhere 
did you learn these dreadful notions-of the Church ? 
Have you lived nigh twenty years so near the Church 
and all this while understood us no better ? " 

He wrote to Dr. Bearcroft, the Secretary of the So- 
ciety, in March, 1742, that the raging enthusiam in 
this country was " like a kind of epidemical frenzy," 
and in order to prevent mischief and take advantage 
of the popular excitement, the clergy were obliged 
to be continually riding and preaching. He himself 
had scarcely failed all the previous winter to officiate 
three times, and frequently six times in a week, go- 
ing to different parts of the Colony and directing the 
minds of people to the true plan of salvation and the 
Scriptural doctrines of the Church. While he was 
thus fulfilling his ministerial duty with a diligence 
and prudence equaled only by his learning and firm- 
ness, a complaint was brought against him which is 
best explained in the following note from the Rev. 
Roger Price, the Commissary for all New England, 
holding his office under the appointment of the Bishop 
of London : — 

Rev. Sie, — Mr. Morris ^ made a complaint to me and 

1 The Rev. Theophilus Morris — an Englishman by birth — who succeeded Mr. 
Arnold at West Haven as an itinerant missionary. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 113 

the clergy convened at Boston relating to your going to the 
dissenting meeting, and suffering your son to do the same, 
which gave some uneasiness to your brethren. I hope your 
prudence will always direct you to avoid anything that may 
show such a favorable disposition towards the separation as 
will obstruct the growth of the Episcopal Church. 

I am your affectionate brother and humble servant, 

, „ RoG. Price. 

Boston, June 18, 1742. 

Johnson lost no time in replying to the reproof 
thus administered, and the answer reveals the relig- 
ious habits of his elder son, who was then a student 
in Yale College : — 

July 5, 1742. 

Rev. Sie, — I received yours of the 18th of June, and do 
take in good part and with humble submission the tender 
chastisement which you and my brethren have thought fit 
to send me relating to my going myself and permitting my 
son to go to meeting. 

As to myself, I cannot think the charge is at all just, for 
I never have been to meeting since the last convention at 
Rhode Island that could with any propriety bear that name. 
All the foundation of Mr. Morris' complaint is only this, 
that on Commencement night, when Davenport was raving 
among the people there, Mr. Wetmore and I went in the 
dark, no mortal knowing us but our o\vn company ; and stood 
at the edge of the crowd and heard him rave about five min- 
utes, and then went about our business ; this I humbly con- 
ceive could not be called going to meeting any more than a 
visit to Bedlam, — for we heard no prayers nor anything 
that could be called preaching, any more than the ravings 
of a man distracted. 

As to my son, I am and so is he, as far as you can be 
from approving his going to meeting, and would by no 
means permit it, if it were possible to avoid it consistently 
with his having a public education. But this is what I 
must entirely deny him, or not forbid him once in a while to 



114 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

go to meeting, and of two evils I think it my duty to choose 
the least. He comes home once in a fortnight or three weeks, 
and when Mr. Morris goes to West-side, he hears him, so 
that he goes to meeting as little as possible. And in this 
case I do not think it the unpardonable sin, though I have 
as little opinion of the meeting as anybody can reasonably 
have. 

I look upon the worst part of going to meeting to be, be- 
ing present and joining with extempore prayers, and yet this 
is what Dr. Cutler and Mr. Usher permitted their sons to do 
every day in the College Hall [Harvard] , without being ever 
found fault with. Upon the whole I can truly say, and thank 
God for it, my prudence has always directed me and always 
shall, to avoid anything that could show the least favora- 
ble disposition towards the separation as such, or to obstruct 
the growth of the Episcopal Church. So far from this, that 
I believe I may say without vanity that I have labored as 
faithfully, and with as good success, as any of my brethren 
in promoting that cause. I came alone into this colony a few 
years ago, when there were but 70 or 80 adult Church people 
in the whole Government, and now there are above 2000 ; 
there are ten churches actually built and three more building, 
and seven settled in the ministry. I have nigh 150 com- 
municants, of whom there wanted but four of fourscore to- 
gether and received the Communion last Sunday, and my 
people are as regular and rubrical in our worship as any 
congregation that I know of. ■ Can it then be supposed that 
I have obstructed our growth ? In short, I have labored, 
and studied, and wrote, and rid, and preached, and pleaded, 
and lived all that was in my power to promote the growth of 
the best of churches. I have neither farming nor merchan- 
dise, nor do I suffer any other pursuit of either pleasure or 
profit to embarrass or hinder me in promoting the growth 
of the Church, which is the single point that I have in view. 
If it would not savor of something like vanity, which I hope 
may be excused on this occasion, I might almost venture 
to say I have labored more abundantly than they all, and yet 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 115 

I must, it seems, be, as it were, singled out by my brethren 
to be censured as one from whom there is danger appre- 
hended of obstructing the growth of the Episcopal Church. 
No, Sir ; I trust the danger is not from any conduct of mine, 
but from that spirit of indolence and neghgence, of bigotry 
and bitterness, which has called my conduct in question, and 
let him that is without fault, or has less fault than I, cast 
the first stone. For God's sake. Sir, is there nothing but 
not forbidding a son to go to meeting when he can't help it 
that can obstruct the Church? Could you find nothing 
worse than this to except against in the conduct of any of 
our brethren ? I fear you might ; if not, God be praised. 
And particularly, my brother Morris, whom I have ever used 
in- the best and kindest manner, I must think had, of all men, 
the least reason to complain, and I fear he has much more 
deserved the censure of his brethren for his violent passion, 
rashness, and inconsistency in his conversation, and his neg- 
lecting his people again and again by such long and needless 
journeys, especially at this important juncture. And I believe 
he had better have gone twenty times to meeting, than once 
have shown such a spirit of ingratitude and malevolence as 
he has done. But I heartily pity and forgive him, and pray 
that he, as well as I and all the rest of us, may live to better 
purpose than to bring our order into contempt, and to dis- 
grace the best Church and religion in the world. 

I am. Rev. Sir, 
Your most obedient humble servant, 

S. Johnson. 

This apology or explanation, which Johnson wished 
the Commissary to communicate to as many of the 
brethren as he had opportunity, was the end of the 
matter, except that he gently remonstrated with Mr. 
Morris, and asked what he meant by raising such a 
" clamor ag-ainst him both at New York and Boston." 
He challenged further scrutiny of his conduct, and 
was willing the complaint should be carried before 



116 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

the Bp. of London and the Venerable Society ; but 
Mr. Morris had misapprehended his intentions, and 
finding himself unable, from the peculiarities of his 
temperament, to secure a better living in the Colony, 
he soon withdrew and returned to England. 

The clergy of Connecticut felt the want of an 
overseer in these critical times more than ever, and 
as they had been repeatedly refused a Bishop, they 
asked for a Commissary to reside among them, and 
for this purpose sent a formal petition to the Bishop 
of London. Their distance from Boston was such as to 
render it inconvenient, if not impracticable, to attend 
the Conventions there, and the growth of the Church 
in the Colony had been so great that they anticipated 
many advantages to come from the appointment. 
They all signed or supported the petition except Mr. 
Morris. Of their own free will, and without any in- 
fluence on his part, they presumed to mention for 
the office the Rev. Mr. Johnson of Stratford, as a per- 
son in whose abilitj^, virtue, and integrity they had 
full confidence. But the Bishop of London was un- 
willing to revoke or change any part of the commis- 
sion which he had granted to Mr. Price without his 
consent, or until his death or resignation, and so 
no Commissary for Connecticut was appointed. The 
petition was renewed six years later to Sherlock, 
then Bishop of London, and the successor of Gibson ; 
but he was so persuaded of his inability to do jus- 
tice to the Church in the American Colonies, and so 
bent on the establishment of one or two Bishops to 
reside in proper parts of them, and to "have the con- 
duct and direction of the whole," that he declined 
to take a patent from the crown for the exercise of 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 117 

ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and only consented to or- 
dain candidates and supervise the clergy till a better 
provision could be made. " I should be tempted," 
said he " to throw off all this care quite, were it not 
for the sake of preserving even the appearance of an 
Episcopal Church in the plantations." But Johnson 
without the appointment of Commissary continued to 
be the prudent guide and adviser of his brethren, and 
the calm watcher of all movements that related to the 
peace and prosperity of the Church, not only in New 
England but throughout the country. 

It was a great gratification to him to receive from 
the University of Oxford the degree of Doctor of 
Divinity, which was conferred upon him by diploma 
February, 1743. Twenty years before, when he vis- 
ited that ancient seat of learning, his merits had 
been recognized, and the hope expressed that by his 
ministry the English Church might be revived on this 
Continent : aliam et eandem olim, nascituram Eccle- 
siam Anglicanam. The hope had been partly fulfilled, 
and the second and higher distinction, due to his 
learning and his labors, was spoken of by the Vice- 
Chancellor, Dr. Hodges, when he resigned his office, as 
one of the most agreeable things that had been done 
during his administration. It was stated in the Di- 
ploma, ut, incredibili JEcclesice mcremento siimmam sui 
expectationem sustimierit plane et superaverit John- 
son thanked his friends, particularly Dr. Astry, and 
Dr. Seeker Bishop of Oxford, for their agency in 
the matter, and wrote to his son at Yale College, 
April 23, 1744, that he might share in the joy of his 
success : " I have the pleasure to let you know that 
my good friend Dr. Astry hath accomplished for me 



lis LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

what he so kindly undertook. Dr. Gardiner, lately 
returned from England, writes to me that he has 
brought my Diploma. I hope you, as well as I, shall 
consider this great honor, which the University of 
Oxford has done me, as a fresh motive to the use of 
diligence in well-doing, that we may deserve the no- 
tice you see they are so ready to take of those that 
faithfully endeavor to have true merit." 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 119 



CHAPTER YI. 

INCREASE OF HIS PARISH AND NEW CHURCH AT STRATFORD ; 
MORE CONTROVERSY; SYSTEM OF MORALITY; STUDY OP HE- 
BREW, AND Hutchinson's principles ; philosophical, 

CORRESPONDENCE ; EDUCATION OF SONS, AND LETTERS TO 
THE ELDER ; PROJECT OF A COLLEGE AT PHILADELPHIA, 
AND JOHNSON INVITED TO ITS CHARGE. 

A. D. 174a-1750. 

It was no longer doubtful that the movement to- 
wards the Church, in consequence of the extravagan- 
cies of Whitefield and his followers, was an earnest and 
important one. Many things conspired to give it 
strength, and the growth of the parishes in Connec- 
ticut necessitated the erection of larger houses of 
worship to accommodate the congregations. This 
was the case at Stratford, where there had been an 
accession of several of the most influential families 
of the place ; and Johnson was much occupied in 
1743 with preparations to build a new edifice suited 
to the wants of the people. Money was scarce in 
those days, and contributions of labor, time, timber, 
and other material were accepted in its place. The 
subscription of the Rector was for a bell, and he had 
the satisfaction of seeing the new church opened, 
though not completed on the 8th of July 1744, when 
he preached a sermon from Psalms xxvi. 8, on " the 
great duty of loving and delighting in the public 
worship of God." The discourse was afterwards 
printed, with an appendix containing prayers for use 



120 LIFE- AND CORRESPONDENCE 

in the family and closet. In the same year a church 
was begun at Ripton (now Huntington), then a part 
of the town of Stratford and under his pastoral care, 
and it was this " growing disposition among the peo- 
ple in many places to forsake the tenets of enthusiasm 
and confusion," that added to the labors of Johnson, 
and required his unceasing ministrations. Probably 
no period of his life was filled with greater anxiety 
than that which immediately followed the itinerancy 
of Whitefield, and witnessed the results of his disor- 
derly proceedings. 

When the spirit that was rampant in the land placed 
all in predestination and mere sovereignty, and denied 
that there are any promises to our prayers and en- 
deavors, another controversy arose which engaged his 
own practiced pen and that of Jonathan Dickinson. i 
He published towards the end of 1744 a pamphlet of 
thirty-two pages, entitled " A Letter from Aristocles to 
Authades concerning the sovereignty and the prom- 
ises of God," and said in his advertisement that what 
prevailed on him to consent to its publication " was a 
sincere and firm persuasion, that it is really the cause 
of God and his Christ that I here plead, and that the 
eternal interest of the souls of men is very nearly con- 
cerned in it. For it is manifest to me, that some 
notions have of late been propagated and inculcated 

1 So early as 1725, one of his parishioners was sharply attacked by this same gen- 
tleman, a Presbyterian divine of Elizabethtown, N". J., upon the subject of Episco- 
pacy, and not being able to cope with his antagonist, Johnson sketched at his request, 
the chief arguments in its favor which the parishioner sent in his own name to Mr. 
Dickinson and soon had an answer. To this a reply was furnished him, and some 
time after, Mr. Dickinson enlarged and printed his own papers in the dispute, which 
involved the necessity of publishing what had been written on the other side with 
the name of the real author. " On this occasion, Mr. Foxcroft, of Boston, took up 
their cause " against the Church, " and wrote more largely, to whom Mr. Johnson re- 
plied but was not answered." 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 121 

in this country, that are equally destructive to the 
right belief both of God and the Gospel. I have, in- 
deed, that charity for those that have done it that I 
do not believe they are sensible of these fatal conse- 
quences of what they teach, though I very much 
wonder they are not aware of them." 

Johnson would not be understood to aim at under- 
mining any of the soul-humbling doctrines of the 
Gospel, for he insisted that his way of explaining the 
Divine Sovereignty and promises was not a distortion 
of the Scriptures ; but entirely agreeable to them, and 
such as unprejudiced men of plain common sense might 
accept and be saved with an everlasting salvation. It 
was a controversy, as one of the pamphlets of the 
day characterized it, between a Calvinist and a be- 
liever of mere primitive Christianity ; and Mr. Dick- 
inson published a first and second " Vindication of 
God's Sovereign free grace," — the last appearing 
just before his death ; but Dr. Johnson had already 
issued another letter in defense of " Aristocles to Au- 
thades," ' and closed it thus : " I will add no more 
but my earnest wishes that we may, on all sides, be 
above all things careful, for the sake of the love of 
God, which is my greatest motive in writing, that we 
do by no means advance or inculcate any notions or 
doctrines that may reflect dishonor upon the best of 
Beings, and upon the Gospel of his grace, or be any 
ways detrimental to any of the souls which He hath 
made." 

In a letter to a friend, he spoke with the warmest 
feelings against those who represented the Deity as 

1 Mr. Dickinson, in his firstVindicalion, interpreted these names to represent John- 
son, and the Rev. Mr. Cooke of Stratfield, who had printed a sermon in favor of his 
own side. 



122 LIFE AND COREESPONDENCE 

consigning some persons to everlasting happiness and 
others to everlasting misery, by an unconditional de- 
cree. " In truth, if it were possible, I would rather 
believe there is no God than to imagine Him to be 
such a Being as these teachers not only represent 
Him, but insist He is ; and you must beheve so too 
upon the pain of damnation." ^ 

" These controversies " says Johnson in his auto- 
biography, " ended in 1744," but he mistook his own 
dates ; for the pamphlets, which were all printed at 
Boston, show that they were rather begun at this 
time, and carried on for the next two years by the 
principals, and then Mr. Beach of Newtown and " Mr. 
Jedediah Mills, pastor of a church at Rip ton," en- 
gaged in the contest and lengthened it out nearly a 
lustrum. 

Mills was an enthusiastic follower of Whitefield, 
and had broken a lance with Johnson, on original 
sin, several years before, by writing him letters and 
calling in question his belief and doctrinal teachings. 
In one of his replies, dated November, 1741, Johnson 
said : " You talked about Dr. Clarke, but I never 
undertook to justify his doctrine of original sin, which 
I even allowed to be expressed too loosely and un- 
guardedly : only I was willing to put a more favor- 
able construction on it than you did ; nor do I re- 
member I ever advised Darby people to read his ser- 
mons in public, but I am sure I advised them not to 
do it, and lent them another book to read that they 
might not read his." 

With a view of counteracting the evil effects of the 
spirit of the times, Johnson prepared and published in 

2 Letter to C. Golden, April 22, 1746. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 123 

1746 a " System of Morality," in two parts ; one treat- 
ing of Ethics in a speculative aspect, and the other of 
the practical duties that result from established truths.^ 
It was a useful and seasonable work, and received the 
approbation of sober and thoughtful men. The fol- 
lowing letter was written by one who, though he had 
no sympathy with him in ecclesiastical matters, yet 
respected his learning, and was himself, in his day, a 
guiding mind among the theologians of New Eng- 
land : — 

Rev. Sir, — I have read your new " System of Morality " 
with a pleasure which I cannot easily express. You have 
honored our country by this production of the most perfect 
piece of Ethics^ and in the best form, that I have seen in 
any language, and I like it most in our own. I hope the 
tutors in our academies may even with the greater advan- 
tage read it to their pupils, show them the connection and 
strength of every part of it, and the force with which it 
should enter their souls and abide there. For I think it 
is strongly adapted to inform the mind and affect the heart ; 
and under the blessing of the Holy Spirit to form both into 
all the emotions of virtue and piety, in its connection with 
and submission to the Sacred Scriptures, and the revelation 
of Jesus Christ, who is the end of the law for righteousness 
to us sinners. 

1 In 1743, a small 18mo volume was published, entitled An Introduction to the 
Study of Philosophy, exhibiting a general view of all the arts and sciences, with a 
" Catalogue of the most valuable books in the Library of Yale College, disposed 
under proper heads." It was written by Johnson "for young men at the College," 
and was the second edition enlarged, the lirst having been published at London in 
the Republic of Letters for May, 1731. At the end of what must have been the 
original draught, dated October 5, 1730, he made a note: " This system did not 
please me well and I drew another." The Catalogue was prepared by Rector Clap, 
and in his advertisement, addressed to the students, he said: " The Introduction to 
Philosophy will give you a general idea or scheme of all the arts and sciences, and 
the several things which are to be known and learnt; and the Catalogue will direct 
you to many of the best books to be read, in order to obtain the knowledge of them. 
And I would advise you, my pupils, to pursue a regular course of Academical studies 
in some measure according to the order of this Catalogue." 



124 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Yet, sir, I also freely own to you that your words, page 
64, " of God's sending a glorious person under the character 
of his own Son, who had an inexpressible glory with Him 
before the world was ; " although enforced by the following 
Scripture expressions, " the express image of his person, and 
the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in Him bodily in his 
incarnate state ; '' seem not enough to me in honor of re- 
vealed religion, the Holy Scriptures ; by which it is. Sir, that 
our reason is illuminated and raised to such a gracious height ; 
as that you, my honored brother, after the diligent study of 
them for many years, have by their help and the assistance 
of the blessed Inspirer of them (I am willing to add), been 
enabled to write this correct and exalted book of Ethics. 

Your own modesty will not permit you to blame me, if I 
freely say, that none of the learned Heathen ever wrote to 
this height, with like perspicuity, method, and enforcement 
on conscience. It is the Christian Divine, after a diligent 
search into the religion of Jesus, together with what the 
masters of morahty had wrote before his manifestation in 
the flesh, or since that blessed day, who exhibits himself in 
your treatise. And though I am too much a stranger now 
to Mr. WoUaston's delineation of the Religion of Nature to 
give my opinion of it, yet I persuade myself also that his 
performance, praised as it has been by those that I highly 
esteem, may stand also much indebted to his improvements 
by Christianity. 

Upon all Sir, to lay my whole intention before you in this 
latter part of my letter, I request you to consider whether 
those words : "a glorious person under the character of his 
own Son in our nature, who had an imperishable glory with 
Him before the world was," with what follows of Scripture 
expressions in that pious paragraph, is sufficient to answer 
unto the doctrine of the eternal Godhead of Christ, as it is 
explained to us in the Athanasian Creed, daily read in your 
worshipping congregations ? 

This is the defect that occurs to me in the close of your 
excellent treatise ; which yet I have not observed to any one 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 125 

but yourself. And I hope, Sir, that this freedom, after the 
high brotherly regards I have been expressing, will be can- 
didly taken by you. 

I ask your prayers for me in my age ; and wishing you 
always the presence of God with you in your holy studies 
and ministrations, 

I am, Rev. Sir, 

Your affec. brother and servant, 

Benj. Colman. 
Boston, June 2, 1 746. 

The answer was worthy of the subject and of the 
man : — 

June 12. 

Rev. Sm, — You needed not to make any apology or 
beseech my candor for so very kind and obliging a letter as 
you did me the favor to write of the 2d instant. The favor- 
able opinion you express of that small piece of morals I 
^vl•ote, I wish it would pretend to deserve, and I am highly 
obliged to you for the candor wherewith you read it, and the 
brotherly kindness you express towards me. 

But what I am particularly obliged to you for is that you 
was so good as to point out to me the passage you mention 
as what you apprehended liable to exception. This I take as 
a singular act of friendship, and what the rather deserves my 
thankful acknowledgment as it comes from a gentleman of 
your venerable age and character, and one to whom I had 
never had the honor of being known. I apprehend, therefore, 
that as I had the presumption to appear in public, your 
kind aim was that nothing that I offer should be either 
liable to misconstruction, or of any mischievous tendency to 
the disadvantage of our common faith. 

In answer, therefore, to your kind suggestion, I beg leave 
to say, that, as I am sincerely tenacious of the Athanasian 
Faith, so I beg those expressions may not be understood to 
be inconsistent with it, but rather expressive of it as they 
appear to me to be, and that you will do me the favor to as- 
sure any gentlemen of this who may be apt to suspect me. 



126 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

The only reason of my expressing myself as I did was, be- 
cause I was not willing to meddle with anything contro- 
versial, and therefore chose to confine myseli to the language 
of the Sacred Scriptures. However, if it were not too late, 
I could wish one word were inserted which would put the 
matter out of all ambiguity. I would express it thus : " Who 
was truly God of God, and had inexpressible glory with Him 
from all Eternity, before the world was," and I should be 
highly obliged to you, if you will desire the printer (provided 
it be not too late) to insert those words. Was truly Grod of 
Crodfrom all Eternity, in their proper place. 

I readily agree with you that even such an imperfect 
sketch of morals as this could never have been beat out with- 
out the help of Revelation, to which no doubt but Mr. Wol- 
laston was also very much beholden ; and indeed I am of 
opinion that those noble pieces of Epictetus, Antoninus, and 
Hierocles, though they were not professed Christians, were 
notwithstanding the better for the light which Christianity 
had brought into the world, though they had it at second 
hand ; which indeed might be the case with Seneca and 
Tully before, and even Plato and Pythagoras, who in their 
travels might pick up many notions which originally came 
from the inspired prophets. 

I again repeat my humblest thanks for your kind letter, 
and especially for your prayer for me with which it concludes, 
and beg the continuance of it ; and I earnestly pray to God 
for you that He will be your shield and the staff of your age 
while you continue here, and your exceeding great reward in 
a better world hereafter. 

I am. Rev. Sir, your most obliged, etc. 

S. J. 

Colman died the next year, and too soon to know 
the success of the little work, whose author he had 
so gracefully complimented. Reference will be made 
to a second edition of it in a future chapter. 

Hebrew had been a favorite study with Johnson, 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 127 

but about this time, his philosophical and theological 
readings led him to take a new interest in it and to 
refresh and improve his critical knowledge. Lord 
President Forbes' " Thoughts on Religion and Letter 
to a Bishop " fell in his way, and opened to him a 
scene of study and inquiry both novel and interesting. 
He found in this author an abridgment or summary 
of the works of John Hutchinson, then attracting the 
attention of the learned world. These he procured 
and read, and considered again and again with the 
utmost care and with the best helps which he could 
command ; and " though in many things," to use his 
own words, " he seemed to overdo and go into ex- 
tremes, and his language was obscure, yet no man in 
these last ages, ever appeared to have so laboriously 
studied, and so thoroughly understood the Hebrew 
language and antiquities, as Mr. Hutchinson." Some 
of his translations were forced and unnatural, and his 
criticisms were not all just. It grieved Johnson that 
he should hurt his own cause by censuring bitterly 
the great name of Sir Isaac Newton, and representing 
him and others as no better than atheists who re- 
nounced Christianity ; and he could not be pleased 
with his harsh treatment of the Jewish Rabbis, what- 
ever defects in their character might be proved. But 
still Hutchinson appeared to him to be a " prodigious 
genius," little inferior, if not superior to Sir Isaac 
himself, and to have established several very impor- 
tant philosophical and theological principles. He 
wrote to his friend John Berriman in London to know 
more about him and the estimation in which he was 
held, and the answer which he received was not very 
flattering to his cultured mind : " Mr. Hutchinson, I 



128 LIFE AND CORRESPONDEN^CE 

never saw in my life but once ; he had rather the ap- 
pearance of a plowman than a philosopher. He was 
not bred to learning ; but by the leisure he enjoyed, 
while he was steward to the Duke of Richmond, he 
found means to attain a good measure of knowledge in 
the Hebrew tongue ; upon which he became so con- 
ceited that he thought nobody knew anything of the 
matter but himself; and those few that learned of him 
to be so sharpsighted as to see in the Old Testament 
the only true principles of philosophy, quite contrary 
to the Newtonian, and clearer accounts of the Trinity 
than are to be found in the New." ^ 

Johnson may have had the feeling to which Jones 
of Nayland gave expression in the preface to the 
second edition of his life of Bishop Home, when, 
speaking of the Hutchinsonian principles, he said : 
" These things came down to us under the name of 
John Hutchinson, a character sid generis, such as the 
common forms of education could never have pro- 
duced ; and it seems to me not to have been well ex- 
plained, how and by what means he fell upon things, 
seemingly so new and uncommon ; but we do not in- 
quire whose they are, but what they are, and what 
they are good for. If the tide had brought them to 
shore in a trunk, marked with the initials J. H., while 
I was walking by the sea-side, I would have taken them 
up, and kept them for use ; without being solicitous 
to know what ship they came out of, or how far, and 
how long they had been floating at the mercy of the 
wind and the waves. If they should get from my 
hands into better hands, I should rejoice ; being per- 
suaded they would revive in others the dying flame 

1 MS. Letter, June 19, 1747. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 129 

of Christian faith, as they did in Bishop Home and 
myself." 

A correspondence, chiefly upon philosophical sub- 
jects, was carried on for some time between Johnson 
and Cadwallader Golden, afterwards Lieutenant-gov- 
ernor of the Province of New York. Golden was the 
son of a Scotch divine, and finished a course of studies 
at the University of Edinburgh, and devoted himself 
to medicine and mathematics. While yet a young 
man, he emigrated to America and finally settled in 
New York, where he was appointed the first surveyor- 
general of the lands of the Golony, and at the same 
time master in chancery. His botanical and medical 
essays were numerous ; but the work upon which he 
bestowed the most labor was first published under 
the title of the " Gause of Gravitation," and then en- 
larged and printed with the title of the " Principles 
of Action in Matter," to which was added a " Trea- 
tise on Fluxions." Among his correspondents were 
such distinguished characters of the time as Linnaeus, 
Gronovius, and Franklin. His letters to Johnson are 
full of the principles involved in his chief work, and in 
one of them he said : " I am now printing something 
on the subject of material agents, which I hope may 
be of use to enlarge our knowledge in moral philoso- 
phy. I print only so many copies as may submit it to 
the examination of the learned. As soon as it shall 
be printed, it will kiss your hands for that purpose." 

Johnson directed his attention to the philosophy of 
Berkeley, and sent him some of his productions, as 
the following letter will show : — 

COLDENGHAM, MttTcTl 26, 1744. 

Sir, — I uow take this opportunity, by Mr. Watkins, to 

9 



130 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

return you my hearty thanks with the books you were 
pleased to send me. As to the Bishop's " New Theory of 
Vision," I think he has explained some things better than 
had been done before, but as to the main design he labors 
at, I cannot say that I comprehend it. I allow that the 
object which reflects light is not in a proper sense the ob- 
ject of vision, no more than a bell or any other sounding body 
is the object of the sense of hearing, and yet I think we may 
without much impropriety say that we see or hear a bell 
as well as that we feel it, though it be certain that the 
bell is not the immediate object of the senses of seeing and 
hearing, as it is of the sense of feeling, and that it is only 
from reasoning and experience that we form the concep- 
tion of the same objects affecting all the senses. If his 
sentiments do not differ from this conception of the matter, 
then I must look on a great part of his books to contain 
a most subtle disputation about the use of words. If his 
sentiments be different, I can form no conception of them. 
His mistake in the " Analyst," in my opinion, may be made 
very apparent, that he does not understand the doctrine of 
Infinites or Fluxions, as received by mathematicians, and 
this I think I can demonstrate. I formerly had illustrated 
the principles of that doctrine in writing, in order to assist 
my own imagination in forming a regular and true concep- 
tion of it. 

Since I received that book from you I have carefully re- 
examined what I had formerly wrote, and am so far from 
finding any defect in what was formerly clear to me, that I 
think I clearly see his error, that he has no conception of the 
principles of that doctrine. If you have a curiosity to be 
satisfied in this, I will send you a copy of my paper. It is 
contained in about two sheets of paper. 

I assume the liberty always to be allowed in philosophiz- 
ing to differ from any man without disrespect or disregard 
to his character, as I now do with respect to Bishop Berke- 
ley, whose merit is very conspicuous, and whom I highly 
esteem. I am sir, your humble servant, 

Cadwalladeb Golden. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 131 

In replying, Johnson as usual defended his friend 
and favorite author, and said : ''I am much oblio-ed 
to you for the observations you have made upon 
Bishop Berkeley's pieces that I sent you. I take it that 
the great design of that gentleman in what he wrote 
was to banish scholasticism, and all talk without any 
meaning, out of philosophy, which, you very well 
know, has been the bane of science in all other parts 
of learning, as well as in religion and morality." He 
did not claim to be competent to understand all his 
reasonings : " As to his mathematical pieces," said he, 
" I confess I am not versed enough in the sublime 
mathematics to be a judge of them, and so cannot 
pronounce on this subject. I am very loth to give 
you the trouble of transcribing, otherwise I should 
have a great curiosity to see what you have wrote 
upon it, in order that I might make a better judg- 
ment ; but this is too great a favor for me to ask." 

In another letter of later date he showed his inde- 
pendent thinking, and confessed : " Your notions of 
prescience and liberty are entirely agreeable to the 
apprehensions I have of those matters ; nor could any- 
thing have been expressed better, nor can the greatest 
authority in the world induce me to think otherwise. 
You knew good Dr. Turner's works. He takes for his 
motto : Nullius in verba. It is a very good one ; and 
for the same reason, though I have a profound vener- 
ation for Mr. Locke and Sir Isaac Newton, yet I will 
not be determined by their authority, nor by their 
reasons, any further than I can see for myself. I am 
not attached to Hutchinson. Sir Isaac was doubtless 
very exact; but no wonder if even he, in matters 
very abstruse, should sometimes be mistaken ; nor is 



132 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

it less to be wondered at, if this should be the case 
now with Bishop Berkeley, though I cannot but think 
him one of the first men of the age. I have lately 
resbd his " Siris," and have desired Mr. Nicholls to 
send it you, if he can consistent with his engage- 
ments with Mr. Franklin, of whom he was so obliging 
as t@ borrow it for me. Be it so that there may be 
some things in it that may be thought fictitious, yet I 
cannot but wish I had your opinion upon the philo- 
sophies! part of it." 

Golden paid his respects to Bishop Berkeley's 
" Treatise on Tar Water," and published his reflec- 
tions by themselves, " which " said he, " turned out 
to the benefit of the printer." But in his corre- 
spondenee with Johnson his pen ran chiefly upon 
mental and moral philosophy; and the several letters 
which passed between them serve to illustrate as 
much thetcharacter of the one as the other: — 

CoLDENGHAM, June 2, 1746. 
HEVEREisro SiE, — I now desire Mr. Nicholls to send 
you a copy of the " Treatise" which I mentioned to you in 
my last. Im iit you will find my thoughts on some things 
which were tLe subject of your last to me by the Rev. Mr. 
Watkins. Oiae thing I am desirous to be more fully in- 
-formed of from you, how consciousness and intelligence be- 
>0ome essentiahto all agents that act from a power in them- 
;:selves. As to tiiy own part, I do not perceive the necessary 
connection between power or force and intelligence or con- 
sciousness. We may certainly in a thousand objects of our 
senses discover pewer and force without perceiving any intel- 
ligence in them. And though this power or force should be 
only apparent aiid the consequence or effect of some other 
•^primary cause, yet. I asn certainly to be excused in my think- 
ing it real, till it afiiear otherwise to me. As I believe every 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 133 

man is to be excused who does not understand astronomy, 
and thinks that the sun moves, and this opinion cannot in 
any proper sense be called an absurdity in him. 

In the next place I must beg you will give me a definition 
of matter, or of any other being merely passive, without any 
power or force or action. Such a being I cannot conceive, 
and therefore as to me does not exist. 

You will oblige me exceedingly by giving your opinion of 
the printed " Treatise " or of any part of it without reserve. 
For my design only is to discover and be assured of the truth. 
You will find by some parts of that piece that though I have 
the greatest esteem of Sir Isaac Newton's knowledge and 
performances, I take the liberty to differ from him in some 
points. That man never existed who never erred. As I 
have a great esteem of your judgment, I am very desirous to 
have your opinion of what I send as soon as may be with 
your conveniency, and thereby you will very much oblige. 
Sir, your most humble servant, 

CadwalIxAder Golden. 

June 19. 
Sir, — I now return you my hearty thanks for yours of 
the 2d instant, and especially for your kind present that ac- 
companied it. It is my sincere opinion of it that it is a very 
ingenious piece, and the result of much and deep thought. 
There is one thing in it that I am much pleased with, which 
is, that you make the resistance of what you call matter to 
be an action deriving from a self-exerting principle. This I 
take to be a point of very great importance and use, both in 
physics and metaphysics as well as in religion. All the odds 
between you and me is, that you imagine matter to be a self- 
exerting principle, whereas I suppose matter to be a mere 
passive thing, and if it is spirit pervading and agitating all 
things, that is one principle of action according to Virgil's 
philosophy : mens agitat molem^ etc., which though it be the 
most ancient notion, I believe is nevertheless true ; and that 
elasticity and gravitation or attraction and repulsion as weU 



134 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

as resistance, or what Sir Isaac calls vis inertice, and perhaps 
several others, are so many various exertions of the one self- 
exerting active principle Who pervades all things, and in 
Whom we live, move, and have our being. 

Your attempt to assign the cause of gravitation appears 
to me a curious dissertation, but I have hardly furniture and 
force of mind enough to comprehend it, having for many 
years discontinued these kind of studies, and indeed never 
turned my thoughts that way so closely as I find you have 
done. Your system seems to me pretty near of kin to Mr. 
Hutchinson's, as far as I have had opportunity to be ac- 
quainted with his from my Lord Forbes, but I believe you 
have much outdone him in the exactness of your method and 
methodical reasoning. 

And now in answer to your candid inquiries, you ask me 
how consciousness and intelligence become essential to all 
agents that act from a power within themselves ? where, by a 
power within themselves I take you to mean a principle of 
activity belonging to their essence, and not either arbitrarily 
annexed to them, or exerting itself in and by them. To 
which I answer, a power of action without a principle of self- 
exertion and activity, I can form no notion of, and a blind 
power or principle of activity — were it possible — would be 
so far from being of any use that it could be only mischiev- 
ous in nature. In fact we find that all these motions and 
consequently actions in nature are conformable to the wisest 
laws and rules, ever aiming at some useful end or design, and 
must therefore be under the management of a most wise and 
designing principle, so that it seems to me repugnant to 
place intelligence and activity in or derive them from different 
principles ; for if you suppose a blind principle of action in 
matter, you must still suppose it under the ever ruling force 
of an intelligent and designing principle ; and as it is not the 
part of a philosopher to multiply beings and causes without 
necessity, it seems plain to me that we ought not to imagine 
any other principle of action than the principle of intelli- 
gence, which we know from our own soul in fact has, and in 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 135 

nature must have, a power of self-exertion and activity. We 
must come at it eventually in our inquiries, and I see not 
how one can avoid admitting it immediately. I can find 
nothing of activity in the idea of matter ; nothing but what 
is merely passive, and therefore can only conceive it as a 
mere passive instrument acted on by the one principle of in- 
telligence and activity. Thus I say things appear to me, nor 
can I with the utmost force of mind that my httle capacity 
will admit "of, conceive of them any otherwise, but 1 submit 
what I am about to advance on this subject to your better 
judgment, and remain Sir, 

Your most obliged friend and humble servant, 

S. J. 

A letter from Golden, dated November 19, 1746, 
continued his speculative inquiries, and met very 
emphatically the apprehension, reported to him by 
Johnson, of one of the Fellows of Yale College, that 
there was a " tendency in his system towards athe- 
ism." This was a misfortune in his view which had 
happened to all new discoveries in philosophy, and 
after rejecting the thought that he was an enemy 
to true religion, he proceeded to say : — 

I shall add something on this occasion, in defense of my 
system, that from it a certain proof may be given of the evi- 
dence of spirits, or immaterial beings. For as in the idea of 
all immaterial beings, quantity or shape or form is included, 
and their actions are all divisible into degrees or quantities 
of action ; the being from whence thinking proceeds cannot 
be material, because no kind of quantity enters our concep- 
tion thereof, neither can any kind of measure or division be 
applied to it, so much as in imagination. 

All allow that when God created matter. He gave it 
some essential property ; otherwise there can be no essential 
difference between matter and spirit, and why may not I say, 
in my way of speaking, that God gave at the creation to dif- 



136 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

fei'ent kinds of matter, different and distinct kinds of action. 
As to my part, I can discover no kind of ill consequence in 
the one more than in the other. 

In answer to your demand of my opinion of Dr. Berkeley's 
book " De Motu," I shall give it vnth the freedom requisite to 
Philosophy. I think that the doctor has made the greatest 
collection in this and his other performances, of indistinct 
and indigested conceptions from the writings of both the an- 
cients, and the moderns that I ever met with in any man's 
performances ; that he has the art of puzzling and confound- 
ing his readers in an elegant style not common to such kind 
of writers ; and that he is as great an abuser of the use of 
words as any one of those he blames most for that fault. I 
hope you will pardon me for writing so freely of your friend, 
and of so great a man. I do it with the less concern in 
hopes thereby to provoke you to use the same freedom with 
me. Compliments vnthout sincerity spoil all philosophy. 

I am so often interrupted at this time with business, and 
which I wish I could avoid, that you must excuse the inco- 
herence of this scrawl, and likewise that I say nothing on 
the subject of your treatise. I will do it when I can apply 
my thoughts to it in the manner you desire. I must still 
stay some days on business in this place, which deprives me 
of that pleasure which I had hoped to obtain in old age ; that 
is, free thoughts and conversation with my friends on phi- 
losophy. 

The next letter contained the notice of the treatise 
which Johnson had desired him to examine, and is 
dated : — 

CoLDENGHAM, January, 27, 1746-7. 
Rev. Sir, — In my last I told you how much I had been 
involved in the public affairs, that I had not been able to 
consider your new System of Morality with the attention 
which I designed to give to the reading of it, and which it 
truly deserves. Nothing has been a greater injury to true 
religion than the pretenses that some people have set up 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 137 

that religion is not the object of the understanding, but is 
merely founded on authority, for in such case it could not 
with any propriety be designed for the use of an intelligent 
being, and there are no means left to distinguish between 
true and false Religion when we are not allowed to use our 
understanding in forming our judgment, and the false may 
set up as strong pretenses to authority as the true, and in 
fact always does. 

You have by your performance clearly evinced the con- 
trary of this, that true religion is founded on the reason or 
nature of things, and you have shown this in a manner 
adapted to common capacities and the commonly received 
conceptions, which makes it more generally useful and the 
more valuable. 

I have considered the same in my own Principles of Nat- 
ural Philosophy, and I have done this for two reasons : viz. 
thereby to remove some metaphysical objections which you 
made to my principles, and which I hope by this method to 
remove more easily than by a direct answer ; the other 
reason is in hopes to give you some hints which may per- 
haps be of use to you in reconsidering your subject, as you 
tell me that you intend to publish a second edition of that 
work. I hope you will give me your sentiments with the 
same freedom that you see I write to you, and thereby I shall 
judge that the freedom I take is not disagreeable to you. 
I have no other view but truth, and for that reason I shall 
myself be more obliged by having my mistakes shown to 
me than by any applause. I am, Sir, 

Your most humble servant, 

Cadwalladee, Golden. 

Johnson waited nearly three months, and then re- 
turned the following answer : — 

April 15. 

Sir, — I have been so much taken up of late in several 

journeys and various other affairs, that this must be my 

apology for not sooner answering your kind letter of Jan. 

27. Your beautiful little draught of the first principles of 



138 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

morality is what I have been very much pleased with ; I 
have read it with attention three times, and every time with 
a fresh increase of pleasure, and I now at length return my 
hearty thanks for it, and for the candor you express towards 
the piece I had the presumption to publish. You have in 
this little piece of yours made such an easy, gradual, and nat- 
ural progress from physics to metaphysics, and from thence 
to morality, as is very pleasing to the mind ; and I think, if 
I rightly apprehend, you have now so explained yourself that 
we do not much differ, and what difference yet remains I be- 
lieve is but merely verbal. My chief objection was against 
your using the term action as expressing anything in matter, 
which I take to be a mere passive thing, and that action 
cannot in strict propriety of speaking be attributed to it ; for 
which reason that expression still grated upon my mind till 
I canie to your 7th section, in which, when you come to ex- 
plain the difference between spirit and body, you say " the 
actions of the latter are altered by efficient causes always 
external to themselves." 

This seems evidently to conclude what I would be at, and 
that at the bottom we think alike, viz. that when we speak 
of matter and the action of it we use that word for want of 
a better, in a sense rather figurative than literal, and un- 
derstand it in a vulgar sense rather than a sense that is 
strictly philosophical, [as we] do the rising and setting of 
the sun. So we may call writing the action of the pen, when 
it is only in reality merely acted [on] , and consequently that 
by the action of matter you do not mean any exertion of its 
own, much less a designed conscious self-exertion which al- 
ways enters into my notion of efficient causes ; and that there- 
fore when you say it is determined by the (exertion I would 
say of) efficient causes always external to itself, those efficient 
causes must always be self-exerting and intelligent beings 
i. e., spirits, which therefore only are properly agents, and 
consequently that all the actions in all nature that affect our 
senses and excite ideas in our minds are really the actions 
of that Great Supreme Almighty Being or Spirit whom you 
call (25) the soul of the universe. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 139 

I do not, with Sir Isaac in § 9, quite like that expres- 
sion. It may however be admitted, if it means that He 
animates and governs the world as the soul does the body, 
which is merely passive to it : it is so far right, — He 
being in this sense the natural Governor of the natural 
world ; but this seems not sufficient unless you also conceive 
Him as the moral Governor of the intelligent or moral world, 
rewarding or punishing men according as they behave, — 
which is what I would apprehend you to mean by the real 
words. 

You say very truly, § 9, We have no idea of matter ; by 
which it is plain that by matter you mean something 
that is not the object either of our senses or minds. Of 
what use then is it in philosophy ? Why may we not 
wholly drop it, and do as well without it, perhaps much 
better, and suppose what you call the action of it to be the 
action of that Almighty Spirit in whom we live, move, and 
have our being, and consider all nature as being the glorious 
system of his incessant exertions and operations, with which 
by his own action governed by fixed rules of his most wise 
establishment called the laws of nature. He perpetually and 
with endless variety of objects affects our senses and minds. 
This will sufficiently account for everything, whereas matter, 
whereof we have no idea, can account for nothing. 

You use the expression, §§ 20 and 21, During the time of 
our existence, which sounds as though it was to have a pe- 
riod with this vain life. This I cannot suppose your mean- 
ing (and therefore might perhaps be better left out), because 
I apprehend you must think it evident from the wisdom, jus- 
tice, and goodness of God, compared with that excellent nature 
He has given us, that we must be designed for nobler ends 
than can be answered by our existence only in this short, un- 
certain, and troublesome life. Thus, Sir, I have used the free- 
dom you desire, and which I doubt not you will take in the 
same good part, and with the same pleasure as I do yours, 
and always shall. I am glad to find by your " Gazette " that 
you are at last resolved to have a College in your Gov- 



140 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

ernment. This is what I doubt not you have much at heart, 
and I heartily wish success to it, and shall be glad to cor- 
respond with you in anything in my little power that may 
tend to promote it, and wish it may take effect speedily 
that you may not suffer the Jersey College (which will be a 
fountain of nonsense) to get ahead of it. 

I am, Sir, etc. S. J. 

The business of his official position crowded upon 
him, and Golden found little leisure to pursue his fa- 
vorite speculations, but he wrote again to Johnson 
in answer to the foregoing letter, and then there ap- 
pears to have been for a short time a suspension of 
their correspondence : — 

New York, May 18th, 1747. 

Rev. Sir, — Yours of the 15th of last month, in which 
you express some satisfaction in the little rude sketch I 
sent you on the first principles of morality, gave me a good 
deal of pleasure, though I cannot be fully clear that either 
of us has received clear conceptions of the other's thoughts. 
But in the first place I must thank you for your taking no- 
tice of some expressions in my paper liable to exceptions. I 
own they are justly so, but as what I wrote was only for 
your private amusement, and to obtain your opinion on my 
thoughts, I did not much attend to the accuracy of expres- 
sion. 

I did not think of the old opinion of the soul of the world 
when I wrote that paragraph. My design was only to avoid 
all expressions which could raise any idea of matter or cor- 
poreity, as the word spirit in its natural signification is apt 
to do, and for that reason only I made use of the words soul 
or mind. Please then to put in their place infinitely/ Intelli- 
gent Being. It was by the same inadvertency the words, — 
During the time of our existence, were made use of, and I 
am obliged to you for the correction which you have made 
of them. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 141 

But now to come to the matter itself, I cannot have any 
idea of anything merely passive or without any kind of 
action. I can have no idea of a mere negative, and since, 
as I observed, all our ideas of everything external to us must 
arise from the actions of those things on our minds, every- 
thing of which we have any idea must be active. This is 
my fundamental argument, to which I suspect you have not 
given sufficient attention ; and from whence I conclude that 
all matter is active. You seem likewise not to have alluded 
to the distinction which I make between the substance and 
the action of that substance. We have no idea of the sub- 
stance of intelligent Beings, as little as of material. We have 
only ideas of their actions. Or the ideas are the effects of 
their actions on our minds. But, Sir, if you attribute all 
action immediately to that Almighty Spirit in whom we live, 
move, and have our Being, all nature (as you say) being a sys- 
tem of his incessant exertions, etc., I do not see how anything 
or action can be morally evil in a proper sense, and the 
foundation of morality seems merely to be sapped. It 
seems to be a kind of Spinozism in other words. But as 
this is inconsistent with the whole tenor and end of your 
treatise I can only conclude that I have not been able to form 
any conception of the first principles of your and Dr. Berke- 
ley's system of Philosophy. I am afraid you will find me 
of a much duller apprehension than you at first imagined, 
and that if you are willing to make me understand your 
system, it will give you more trouble than perhaps any- 
thing, that can be expected from me on the subject, can de- 
serve. 

The public affairs have employed my time so much that 
I cannot write more fully at this time on this or any other 
subject, and I must desire that the same excuse may serve 
for my not answering your letter sooner. But if you be at 
more leisure, a line or two from you will be exceedingly 
agreeable to me, that I may know whether I have been so 
lucky as to explain anything to your satisfaction, or to free me 
from my mistakes. I hope soon to be freed from these clogs 



142 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

to the pleasantest amusement in old age, and to have time to 
show how much I am, Sir, 

Your most obliged humble servant, 

Cadwalladee, Golden. 

June 7. 

Sir, — Could you be sensible of the manner of life I am 
obliged to live, I should have little occasion to make any 
apology for my being so long before I answer your obliging 
letters, and especially your last of May 18, for which I now 
return you my sincerest thanks ; or for my incorrectness of 
expression when I do write, which doubtless is the chief occa- 
sion of my not being clearly understood, as well as of my not 
sufficiently attending to what you write. For my case is 
not altogether dissimilar to that of the great Apostle, partic- 
ularly in being in journeyings often and in perils among false 
brethren. 

I am entirely satisfied and well pleased with the amend- 
ments you allow me to make in the ingenious draught you 
were so good as to send me of your notion of the first princi- 
ples of morality ; with Avhich it now runs clearly to my mind 
and is equally pleasing to my friends here, to whom I have 
communicated it. As for the incidental turn I made upon 
an expression of yours in favor of Bp. Berkeley's system, 
I was little more than jocular on that occasion, being not 
dogmatically tenacious of his pecuhar sentiments, much less 
zealous of making you a proselyte to them. I would how- 
ever observe that you have made a considerable approach 
towards them, at least as far as I am concerned to wish you 
to do, particularly in your allowing that all our ideas of sen- 
sible things are the effects of the actions of something ex- 
ternal to our minds, and that even resistance is an action. 
Your supposing an active medium which you call matter in- 
tervening between the action of the Deity and our minds 
perceiving, to which they are immediately passive, though I 
am not clear in it, does not affect me so long as you allow 
all action throughout all sensible nature to derive originally 
from Him. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 143 

I doubt I expressed myself sometimes uncouthly, at least 
very incorrectly, otherwise you would not have inferred from 
what I wrote that I attributed " all action immediately to 
the Almighty Spirit." I meant only all the actions in sen- 
sible nature only, or which produce in our minds the ideas of 
sense and imagination ; but I was far from meaning that 
there are no other actions besides those of the Deity. For 
this would be in effect to deny or doubt whether there be 
any other Beings besides Him and our ideas. This would 
sap the foundation of morality sure enough, and would be at 
least as bad as Spinozism. Bp. Berkeley any more than I, 
never doubted of the existence or actions of other inferior 
created spirits, free agents and subject to moral government. 
All he contends for is that there are no other than two 
sorts of beings, the one active the other passive, — that spirit, 
the Deity, and created intelligence alone are the active beings, 
and the objects of sense alone are merely passive ; and that 
there is no active medium intervening between the actions of 
the Deity and our minds whom He has made to be percep- 
tive and self-active Beings. These I take to be the first 
principles of his system. But however at a loss you may 
be about his peculiar system, there is a very pretty book pub- 
lished in England in 1745, called " Dialogues Concerning 
Education," being a plan for training up the youth of both 
sexes in learning and virtue, which I have lately seen, and 
long to have you read ; and in which I don't doubt we should 
perfectly agree. I have recommended it to Mr. Shatford of 
New York to procure several copies, and do not think we 
could put a better thing into the hands of our children. It 
is the prettiest thing in its kind, and the best system both 
in physical, metaphysical, and moral philosophy I have ever 
seen. 

Dr. Johnson had two sons ; the birth of the elder 
has been already given, and that of the other — Wil- 
liam — took place March 9, 1731. He saw as their 
intellects opened, that if they had such an education 



144 LIFE A^T> COERESPONDENCE 

as he desired for them, it would be necessary for him 
to give his personal attention to it, and carry them 
through the preliminary course, and " that it might 
be the more agreeable to them to have companions, 
he took several gentlemen's sons of New York and 
Albany." When the youngest was born he wrote in 
his private diary : " God, I give this child as well 
as the other to Thee. Bless them both," and "let 
me live to see them well educated and engaged in 
Thy service." At the age of about thirteen they 
were each admitted to the lowest class in Yale Col- 
lege, but "it was a great damage to them," said the 
father " that they entered so young, and that when 
they were there, they had so little to do, their class- 
mates being so far behind them." He regretted that 
he had not taught them Hebrew before they entered ; 
a study which they could not pursue in College, as 
there was no competent teacher. William Samuel, 
the eldest, received the degree of B. A. in 1744, and 
was the single " scholar of the house," for that year, 
to whom was adjudged the premium under the bounty 
of Dean Berkeley. He chose the law for his profes- 
sion, and in the last week of May, 1747, he took a 
journey to Boston, that he might attend a few Lec- 
tures, be present at the Commencement, and admitted 
a Master of Arts in Harvard University. 

Some external preparation for the occasion appears 
to have been necessary, since he wrote to his father 
from Cambridge that he had spoken for a wig and could 
not have one under <£10 ; everything being " mon- 
strously dear." The cost of his degree exceeded his 
expectations: " Commencement is now over" said he, 
" and I have taken a Degree which cost me £8 ; four 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 145 

of which I was unwilling to pay, but the Corporation 
appointed the charge when they granted my request, 
and it was then too late to hesitate about it." 

The letters which passed between the father and 
the son at this time are full of afiection, and because 
it was the turning point in the son's life, the most 
important of them deserve a place in this connection. 
He had reported his pleasant journey and safe arrival, 
and given some account of the old friends of his 
father, — Dr. Cutler and Mr. Caner,^ — as well as his 
inclinations about a profession and his desire to be 
governed by the paternal counsels, before he penned 
the following letter : — 

Honored Sir, — When I wrote last it was in great haste, 
and only that you might just know that I was well. Since 
which I have met with nothing very ' remarkable. The 
small-pox, which, when I wrote first, I informed you was in 
town, is now only in the pest-house, and there only one negro 
has it, so that there is now no danger. The gentleman also, 
I then mentioned, is since taken up and buried ; he was 
found with his money and watch about him, and therefore 'tis 
thought was not murdered as was suspected. It proved to 
be the gentleman from London. He was son to a Deacon of 
Dr. Guise's Church, of a fine fortune, and came recommended 
to Dr. Colman, who never saw him but once. He preached 
a sermon about it last Sunday, and told them that the last 
was the most affiicting week that he ever endured. 

About £4l0 of the money I brought with me was of the 
Rhode Island last emission, and consequently of no use here, 
for it is £50 fine to tender it to any one. What I mention it for 
is because I got Captain Prince to change it, and he expects 
that you will indemnify him, if the law prohibiting the bills 
of the neighboring colonies (which we hear our Assembly is 

' Rev. Ilenrj' Caner, long his neighbor over the Church at Fairfield, Conn., haii 
recently been made Rector of King's Chapel Boston. 
10 



146 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

about to enact) should take place before he gets home. If 
it should, I believe you must repay him and send it down to 
me if you have an opportunity'-, that I may exchange it at 
Newport on my return home. 

The precepts you gave me in your letter are excellent, and 
the method you prescribe is no doubt the best ; for I find by 
experience that vice is not to be reasoned with, but the temp- 
tation to it to be avoided, and none is there greater than that 
of bad company. It is almost impossible to associate with ill 
men and not sometimes do as they do, and even though we do 
not, yet their converse leaves a stain upon the mind which it 
is very difficult to get rid of. For this reason it shall be, as 
you advise, my greatest concern to avoid them, and chief care 
not to consent with them in their wickedness. 

It is the greatest desire of my soul to be useful to mankind, 
but the difficulty is to determine in what way ; for as we 
must necessarily be confined to some one kind of business or 
profession for a subsistence, so I think every man ouglit to 
choose that which is most agreeable to his dispositions and 
abilities, for in that he is most likely to succeed ; and here it 
seems that what is really the best profession, in itself con- 
sidered, is out of the question, but the point is what is best 
for this or that particular man. For as it is impossible that 
all men can live by any one profession, though it be really 
the best, so the Wisdom of Heaven has almost infinitely 
diversified the dispositions and powers of men, that they may 
not only follow but also delight in the different pursuits of 
life ; and he I take it as much answers the end of his being 
who adorns a lower as he who fills a higher station of life, 
provided he is apparently calculated for it, and, therefore, it 
seems I must consider not in what profession the greatest 
good may be done to mankind, but in what station I, with 
these dispositions, these abilities and acquirements which I 
possess, am most likely to serve them ; for where there is one 
that succeeds in an employment for which he is not calcu- 
lated there are thousands that fail. 

You may perhaps think from that warmth and eagerness of 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 147 

temper which is natural to me, that I am for rushing into life 
and business hand over head without due deliberation and 
forecast. But in this you are really mistaken, for I am fully 
sensible that all my future happiness in life depends upon 
my taking a right course ; so I have employed my most seri- 
ous and intense thought upon it for this long time past, and 
have endeavored so far as I am able to consider everything 
relating to it, and to view my case, in every possible light I 
could place it. But I am resolved to do nothing rashly, yet I 
think it is high time for me to have some particular business 
in view, and to be qualifying myself for it. And as I chiefly 
and above all (under the conduct of Heaven) depend upon 
your advice, direction, and approbation in this most important 
case, so I hope you will be prepared when I come home to 
give me your last and best advice in the affair, that I may 
earnestly apply myself more immediately to fit myself for 
business. And pray. Sir, consider the distinction I mentioned 
above, and consider not what profession is best in itself (for 
if I am not fit for it, that must be tlie very worst of all for 
me), but what is best for me such as I am. We cannot un- 
make ourselves. We may correct but can never eradicate 
the first principles of our constitution either in body or mind. 
I know and am fully persuaded you would do what to you 
appears best for me in every case, and you know my temper, 
dispositions, abilities, etc. as well, perhaps better than I do 
myseLf ; therefore, Sir, consider these and direct me to a 
course of life that is suitable for me ; for by this means, and 
by the practice of virtue in such a course, I apprehend it is 
most likely I may become an instance of the generis humani 
debitio, and an instrument of doing all the good I am capable 
of among this degenerate race, and may best secure both my 

temporal and eternal interest 

I am, honored Sir, 

Your most dutiful son and humble servant, 
Wm. Sam"- Johnson. 

Cambuidgk, June 13, 1747. 



148 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Stratford, Jwne 23, 1747. 

Dbaeest Son, — I thank you for yours of the 13th, and 
am glad to find the small-pox is not likely to spread. That 
is a very melancholy story you tell of the young gentleman, 
and must come with a most shocking force to his poor 
father's ears, whom every human breast must tenderly com- 
passionate, though perhaps the less, if what I heard be true, 
that that idle passion called love was the occasion of it, on 
account of which, it being unequal, he forced him away. I 
conclude the affair of the Rhode Island money need give us 
no concern, since though Prince told me of his changing it, 
he said nothing further about it. 

I am extremely well pleased with the remarks 'you make 
on the advice I gave you about the infectiousness of vice and 
the great danger of bad company, and the resolution you ex- 
press to be tipon the strictest guard, which I pray God you 
may steadfastly abide by ; and remember that that loose, 
weak, inconstant humor, abusively called Free Thinking, is 
equally infectious with vice, of which it is always either a 
cause or an effect, or most commonly both. I hope, therefore, 
you will be no less upon your guard against that, and any 
conversations leading to it, especially those of the ludicrous 
kind, which can be no more reasoned with than vice itself, 
or the most violent temptation to it. And as I doubt not 
but the infidelity of this wicked age is chiefly occasioned by 
an unbounded self-conceit and the unconstrained indulgence 
of lust, I would particularly recommend it to you above all 
things to be clothed ivith humility and to flee youthful lust. 

I am also equally well pleased with the reflections you 
make upon the subject of making a wise choice of a course 
of life wherein to be useful to mankind. They are very just. 
If a man is not pleased with the business he follows, it cannot 
be expected he will succeed in it. For which reason I have 
always resolved as far as possible to indulge your inclinations, 
though at the expense of my own, for I am so much con- 
cerned, if possible, that you may be happy, that I should 
gladly undergo a great deal of uneasiness rather than stand 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 149 

in the way of it : nay, I have said, though I could never en- 
joy myself if you should follow war, yet I would rather sub- 
mit to that, than that you should not be able to enjoy your- 
self well in some other calling. 

But with regard to the question before us, I agree with 
you, that in choosing a course of life much allowance must 
be made to one's natural genius and inclination. Genuine 
nature must always be consulted. Notwithstanding which, I 
cannot quite agree with you in saying that what is really the 
best profession in itself considered is out of the question. 
Methinks it ought by all means to be taken into considera- 
tion with other things, in order to make a just judgment hov/ 
to steer. If indeed it is plainly humoris impar^ or one has 
an unconquerable aversion to it as a business of life, as I 
have for husbandry (though a great opinion of it), it must 
be doubtless a duty to choose rather some other course. But 
if I am equally qualified for that with another, perhaps better, 
and have only some little reluctances and misgivings, I ought 
in that case, for the sake of the superior intrinsic excellency 
and usefulness, to set my reason to work to conquer those re- 
luctances if possible. And I know by experience, agreeable 
to what you allow, that the nature cannot be eradicated yet 
it may be corrected ; that what one has no genius for, and 
even a reluctance to, may by dint of resolution and applica- 
tion be randered not only tolerable but even delightful, as 
was my case with regard to Mathematics. 

You are, my son, and I bless God for it, by genius and 
ability equally qualified to shine either in the pulpit, at the 
bar, or at arms. As to the last, I hope that is now at least 
in a great measure out of the question. And as to the two 
former, I shall for my part be entirely easy whichsoever you 
choose, though I prefer the first, for which you are already 
so well qualified that you can well afford to spend a year or 
two in making a trial of the study of Law, which would by 
no means be lost time, if you should afterwards quit it for 
Divinity! On the other hand, if you like it you may abide 
by it. 



150 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

You say well (as being so young you well may), that you 
are not for rushing suddenly into life. And as you can spare 
yet three or four years to consider and qualify yourself, I doubt 
not but by that time you may begin in either of those profes- 
sions with good advantage. Meantime assure yourself it is 
my daily and earnest prayer both for you and your brother 
not only that you may be duly qualified, but also directed to 
such a choice of business for life as may enable you to do 
God the greatest honor and mankind the greatest good you 
are capable of, and at the same time, in the best manner to 
enjoy yourselves here, and be qualified for the most ample re- 
ward hereafter. And to my prayers I shall willingly add my 
best advice and endeavors, and I am glad you have opened 
the way to a particular and free correspondence and conver- 
sation vipon these subjects, and would wish you always to 
converse with me in the freest and most unreserved manner 
upon any subject that may be of importance to you, nay even 
upon the choice of a companion as well as a business for life, 
as occasion may offer. For there is nothing pleases me better 
than a decent, open, and unreserved freedom. You will make 
allowance for the extreme haste of my writing. It is now 
half an hour past 12, and high time to break up, so I con- 
clude. With our hearty love to you, 
Dear son. 

Your most tender and affectionate father, 

S. JoHNSok. 

The answer to this letter caused the father to write 
another with more advice about plans for the future ; 
and he addressed it to his son at Guilford, where he 
would stop on his return to visit relations. It closed 
the correspondence, and nothing more was needed to 
fix him in the choice of a profession : — 

Stratford, July 7, 1747. 
Dear Son, — I do not now write to you as at Boston, 
having been informed you was to leave it this week. How- 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 151 

ever as writing ratlier than speaking may be most agreeable 
to you on some of the subjects of your letter, I send this to 
meet you on the road. 

Methinks you are rather too severe upon that instance of 
human frailty which is called Love. I believe there are 
few of us without some tincture of distraction, and I take 
that to be a species of it, which, in some degrees, of which 
there have been many instances, deserves as great a compas- 
sion and tenderness as any other kind of distraction, it being 
sometimes equally impossible even for a good genius to be 
master of himself in that case, as in any other case of distrac- 
tion, which makes it a matter of great importance with re- 
gard to that, as well as other dangers, to think much of the 
Apostle's aphorism, Let him that thinJceth he standeth take 
heed lest he fall. 

I am pleased with the declaration you make of your sense 
and resolution about Free Thi7iJcing. Indeed I have thought 
(nor am I yet secure) that you are in too much danger of it, 
I mean in the bad sense ; instances of which, you complain 
you have met with. But it is rather too cold an expression 
you use, that the more you know of this humor the less you 
esteem it. This seems to imply as if you had had too much of 
a favor for it, and upon the experience and observations you 
have had opportunity to make of it, I should hope you might 
have said, the more you know of it the more you abhor it. 

You suspect my tenderness may carry me too far. It may 
have been so in some instances. It is a pardonable esteem, 
for which I hope you know how to make allowances. But 
give me leave to say, that there is at least as great a danger 
in youth of being too secure and self-sufficient ; and, in con- 
sequence of that, of thinking too hardly of the caution and 
anxiety of age, and being not sufficiently sensible of the great 
advantage which age has of youth, in having gone through a 
long course of experience, and having had larger opportuni- 
ties of trial, both of the treachery of a tempting world, and of 
the instability and deceitfulness of the heart of man, — our 
own as well as that of others ; and consequently of the great 



152 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

dangers to which youth is particularly exposed, and of which 
it is not sufficiently aware. 

I did not allege the case of Mathematics, as being at all 
concerned with choosing a course of life (as you seem to un- 
derstand me), but only as a case, wherein a choice being made 
of any pursuit, even though somewhat against the grain, a 
resolute practice and application might, as I experienced, ren- 
der it not only tolerable but even delightful. 

Perhaps it is only the knowledge of yourself as you now 
are, in the heat of youth, that makes you apprehensive that 
you are not well calculated for Divinity (of which you give 
so just an encomium). I doubt not but with a careful man- 
agement of yourself, you will in a few years grow more se- 
date, and your taste may much alter. However, as you pro- 
fess that you have no notion of hurrying into life, you will 
do well to study law industriously two or three years. I 
would only observe, that so far as temper and disposition and 
conduct in life are concerned, such a management of them as 
is necessary to make a good Christian will be equally consist- 
ent with being a divine ; and if you should not follow divin- 
ity as your profession, I beg to depend that your conduct be 
such as would be an ornament to it, and that you so order 
your manner of life, as vastly more to serve than disserve 
that cause ; much less would I fear as you seem to do, that 
if you were a divine you should do more hurt than good 
to it. 

You abhor the thought of making a woman unhappy, i. e., 
in matrimony, or a family miserable. You are very right in 
this, and I hope I may take this as a good omen that you are 
resolute (and then you will succeed in it) so to act your part 
in life, as will not fail by God's blessing to make all those 
happy in a good measure to whom you may ever be related. 
And I would hope the same tenderness for that tender and 
unwary sex will always make you equally careful while you 
are in a state of celibacy to guard against anything that may 
have the least tendency to make any of them miserable, which 
often proves the effect of a frequent intercourse with them 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 153 

when no tliougbts of anything further than mere conversation 
are intended. This is an affair of great tenderness, and has 
occasioned in time past a great deal of grief to me, and were 
I to go over life again I would never frequently or much con- 
verse with a person I had not even remote thoughts of mak- 
ing a partner in life, or when I was in no condition for it. 

You say you are not worth a farthing, etc. It is true you 
are not in possession, but whenever you are disposed to settle 
yourself, I can spare you 2,000 pounds worth of lands to dis- 
pose of for that purpose, and hope in God's time I may leave 
you at least as much more. Meantime, I am. 
Your most affectionate father, 

S. Johnson. 

In the year 1749 a project was set on foot to estab- 
lish a college at Philadelphia, and several gentlemen 
of the first rank in the province gave it their sup- 
port. One of this number was the celebrated Benja- 
min Franklin, who drew up and published the original 
proposals for erecting the English, Latin, and Math- 
ematical schools of the institution under the name of 
an Academy, " which was considered as a very proper 
foundation on which to raise something further at a 
future period if these should be successful." He con- 
sulted Dr. Johnson, for whose opinion on such mat- 
ters he had the highest respect, about the plan of 
education ; and was very urgent to get him to assume 
the Presidency, and for this purpose, in company with 
another gentleman, visited him at Stratford. A sim- 
ilar movement was begun about the same time in 
New York, and Johnson, in writing to his fast friend. 
Bishop Berkeley, desired his good offices and " advice 
upon the undertaking." The following letter in reply 
was inclosed to Dr. Franklin, that he might have the 
benefit of the suggestions and thoughts which it con- 
tained : — 



154 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Cloyne August 23, 1749. 
Rev. Sir, — I am obliged for the account you have sent 
me of the prosperous estate of learning in your College of 
New Haven. I approve of the regulations made there, and 
am particularly pleased to find your sons have made such a 
progress as appears from their elegant address to me in the 
Latin tongue. It must indeed give me a very sensible satis- 
faction to hear that my weak endeavors have been of some 
use and service to that part of the world. I have two letters 
of yours at once on my hands to answer, for which business 
of various kinds must be my apology. As to the first, wherein 
you inclosed a small pamphlet relating to tar-water, I can 
only say in behalf of those points in which the ingenious 
author seems to dissent from me, that I advance nothing 
which is not grounded on experience, as may be seen at large 
in Mr. Prior's narrative of the effects of tar-water, printed 
three or four years ago, and which may be supposed to have 
reached America. 

For the rest, I am glad to find a spirit towards learning 
prevail in those parts, particularly New York, where you say 
a college is projected, which has my best wishes. At tlie 
same time I am sorry that the condition of Ireland, contain- 
ing such numbers of poor uneducated people, for whose sake 
Charity Schools are erecting throughout the kingdom, oblig- 
eth us to draw charities from England ; so far are we from 
being able to extend our bounty to New York, a country in 
proportion much richer than our own. But as you are 
pleased to desire my advice upon this undertaking, I send the 
following hints to be enlarged and improved by your own 
judgment. 

I would not advise the applying to England for charters 
or statutes (which might cause great trouble, expense, and 
delay), but to do the business quietly within themselves. 

I believe it may suflice to begin with a President and two 
Fellows. If they can procure but three fit persons, I doubt 
not the college from the smallest beginnings would soon grow 
considerable : I should conceive good hopes were you at the 
head of it. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 155 

Let them by all means supply themselves out of the semi- 
miries in New England. For I am very apprehensive none 
can be got in Old England (who are willing to go) worth 
sending. 

Let the Greek and Latin classics be well taught. Be 
this the first care as to learning. But the principal care 
must be good life and morals to which (as well as to study) 
early hours and temperate meals will much conduce. 

If the terms for degrees are the same as in Oxford and 
Cambridge, this would give credit to the College, and pave 
the way for admitting their graduates ad eundem in the 
English universities. 

Small premiums in books, or distinctions in habit, may 
prove useful encouragements to the students. 

I would advise that the building be regular, plain, and 
cheap, and that each student have a small room (about ten 
feet square) to himself. 

I recommended this nascent seminary to an English bish- 
op, to try what might be done there. But by his answer it 
seems the colony is judged rich enough to educate its own 
youth. 

Colleges from small beginnings grow great by subsequent 
bequests and benefactions. A small matter will suflfice to 
set one a going. And when this is once well done, there is no 
doubt it will go on and thrive. The chief concern must be 
to set out in a good method, and introduce, from the very 
first, a good taste into the society. For this end the princi- 
pal expense should be in making a handsome provision for 
the President and Fellows. 

I have thrown together these few crude thoughts for you 
to ruminate upon and digest in your own judgment, and 
propose from yourself, as you see convenient. 

My correspondence with patients who di'ink tar water, 
obliges me to be less punctual in corresponding with my 
friends. But I shall be always glad to hear from you. My 
sincere good wishes and prayers attend you in all your laud- 
able undertakings. 

I am your faithful, humble servant, G. Cloyne. 



158 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

The Philadelphia gentlemen matured their plans, 
and the subscriptions obtained for carrying them out 
were a strong proof of the public spirit and generos- 
ity of their fellow-citizens. The hints of Berkeley^ 
appear to have been carefully studied, and Johnson 
was importuned to become the head of an institu- 
tion which he showed himself so , well qualified to 
direct, and which promised to be such a nursery of 
classic and Christian learning. 

1 The memory of this distinguished prelate as interested in Christian Education is 
perpetuated in Connecticut. His name designates one of its most useful and pros- 
perous Institutions, — the "Berkeley Divinit}' School " at Middletown, incorporated 
in 1854, and conducted, since its foundation, under the immediate charge of the 
Bishof) of the Diocese. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 157 



CHAPTER VII. 

CORRESPONDENCE AVITH FRANKLIN ; DECLINES PHILADELPHIA ; 
" ELEMENTA PHILOSOPHICA " ; DEATH OF BERKELEY AND 
LETTER FROM HIS SON; ENGLISH EDITION OP "ELEMENTS OF 
PHILOSOPHY " ; SPECULATIVE INQUIRIES, AND NOTIONS ABOUT 
EDUCATION. 

A. D. 1750-1754. 

The fondness of Johnson for learning and colleges 
induced him to take into serious consideration the 
overtures from Philadelphia. They were urged upon 
him in a way which made them somewhat attractive, 
but his reluctance to leave the region of his nativity 
and separate himself from the cherished associations 
of his brethren formed a great obstacle to their ac- 
ceptance. He spoke freely of his age as against the 
change, and did not think it was warranted by the 
prospect of increased usefulness and better pecun- 
iary support. Dr. Franklin's letters to him present 
the subject very fully, and show the points on which 
Johnson dwelt in his replies. The first that has been 
preserved is dated : — 

Philadelphia, Aug. 9, 1750. 

Rev. Sik, — At my return home I found your favor of 
June the 28tli, with the Bishop of Cloyne's letter mclosed, 
which I will take care of, and beg leave to keep a httle 
longer. 

Mr. Francis, our Attorney General, who was with me 
at your house, from the conversation then had with you, 
and reading some of your pieces, has conceived an esteem 



158 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

for you equal to mine. The character we have given of you 
to the other trustees, and the sight of your letters relating 
to the academy, has made them very desirous of engaging 
you in that design, as a pei'son whose experience and judg- 
ment would be of great use in forming rules and establish- 
ing good methods in the beginning, and whose name for 
learning would give it a reputation. We only lament, that 
in the infant state of our funds, we cannot make you an 
offer equal to your merit. But as the view of being useful 
has most .weight with generous and benevolent minds, and in 
this affair you may do great service not only to the present 
but to future generations, I flatter myself sometimes that 
if you were here, and saw things as they are, and con- 
versed a little with our people, you might be prevailed with 
to remove. I would therefore earnestly press you to make 
us a visit as soon as you conveniently can ; and in the mean 
time let me represent to you some of the circumstances as 
they appear to me. 

1. The Trustees of the Academy are applying for a char- 
ter, which will give an opportunity of improving and mod- 
eling our constitution in such a manner as, when we have 
your advice, shall appear best. I suppose we shall have 
power to form a regular college. 

2. If you would imdertake the management of the English 
Education, I am satisfied the trustees would, on your ac- 
count, make the salary .£100 sterling, (they have already 
voted ,£150 currency which is not far from it), and pay the 
charge of your removal. Your son might also be employed 
as tutor at £60 or perhaps £70 per annum. 

3. It has been long observed, that our church is not suf- 
ficient to accommodate near the number of people who would 
willingly have seats there. The buildings increase very fast 
towards the south end of the town, and many of the princi- 
pal merchants now live there ; which being at a considerable 
distance from the present church, people begin to talk much 
of building another, and ground has been offered as a gift 
for that purpose. The Trustees of the Academy are three 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 159 

fourths of them members of the Church of England, and the 
rest men of moderate principles. They have reserved in the 
building a large hall for occasional preaching, public lectures, 
orations, etc. ; it is 70 feet by 60, furnished with a handsome 
pulpit, seats, etc. In this Mr. Tennent collected his congre- 
gation, who are now building him a meeting-house. In the 
same place, by giving now and then a lecture, you might, 
with equal ease, collect a congregation that would in a short 
time build you a church, if it should be agreeable to you. 

In the mean time, I imagine you will receive something 
considerable yearly, arising from marriages and christenings 
in the best families, etc., not to mention presents that are not 
unfrequent from a wealthy people to a minister they like ; 
and though the whole may not amount to more than a due 
support, yet I think it will be a comfortable one. And 
when you are Avell settled in a church of your own, your son 
ma}' be qualified by years and experience to succeed you in 
the Academy ; or if you rather choose to continue in the 
Academy, your son might probably be fixed in the Church. 

These are my private sentiments which I have commu- 
nicated only to Mr. Francis, who entirely agrees with me. 
I acquainted the trustees that I would write to you, but 
could give them no dependence that you would be prevailed 
on to remove. They will, however, treat with no other till 
I have your answer. 

You will see by our newspaper, which I inclose, that the 
Corporation of this city have voted ,£200 down and £100 a 
year out of their revenues to the Trustees of the Academy. 
As they are a perpetual body, choosing their own successors, 
and so not subject to be changed by the caprice of a gov- 
. ernor or of the people, and as 18 of the members (some the 
most leading) are of the trustees, we look on this donation to 
be as good as so much real estate ; being confident it will be 
continued as long as it is well applied, and even increased, if 
there should be occasion. We have now near £5,000 sub- 
scribed, and expect some considerable sums besides may be 
procured from the merchants of London trading hither. And 



160 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

as we are in the centre of the Colonies, a healthy place, with 
plenty of provisions, we suppose a good academy here may 
draw numbers of youth for education from the neighbor- 
ing Colonies, and even from the West Indies. 

I will shortly print proposals for publishing your pieces 
by subscription, and disperse them among my friends along 
the continent. My compliments to Mrs. Johnson and your 
son ; and Mr. and Mrs. Walker your good neighbors. 
I am, with great esteem and respect, Sir, 

Your most humble servant, 

B. Franklin. 

P. S. There are some other things best treated of when 
we have the pleasure of seeing you. It begins now to be 
pleasant travelling. I wish you would conclude to visit us 
in the next month at farthest. Whether the journey pro- 
duce the effect we desire or not, it shall be no expense to you. 

The Rev. Richard Peters, though he had no per- 
sonal acquaintance with him, wrote him on the same 
day, and invited him to his house. Mr. Peters was 
an Englishman of culture and good manners, who 
came to this country in Holy Orders, with his young 
vv^ife, and served for a time as an assistant in Christ 
Church, Philadelphia, tie afterwards accepted the 
appointment of Provincial Secretary, and acquired a 
considerable fortune, but did not relinquish his minis- 
terial character, and continued occasionally to per- 
form clerical duty. The letter below has allusion to 
his official position in the government which he still 
held : — 

Ppiiladelphia, Am. 9, 1750. 
Reverend Sir, — I am obliged to you for the honor you 
did me in your compliments by Mr. Franklin and Mr. Fran- 
cis. They said so many good things of your abilities and 
inclinations to promote useful knowledge, and the Trustees 
of the Academy are so much in want of your advice and 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 161 

assistance, that, though personally unknown to you, I must 
take the freedom, from a hint that such a journey would 
not be disagreeable to you, to give you an invitation to my 
house. Let me, good Sir, have the pleasure of conversing 
with a gentleman whose character I have a long time es- 
teemed, and provided your journey be not between the 20th 
October and 1st November, when I am obliged to attend the 
Governor and Assembly at New Castle, I will meet you at 
Trenton or Brunswick, or any other place you shall appoint. 
I will tell you beforeha.nd, that can my friends or I find any 
expedient to engage your residence among us, I will leave 
nothing unattempted in the power of, Reverend Sir, 
Your affectionate brother and humble servant, 

RiCHAKD PeTEES. 

Johnson replied : — 

Au(/. 16. 
SlE, — I am extremely obliged to you for the honor you 
have done me in writing so kind and polite a letter to me, 
who am a perfect stranger to you, and a person whose real 
character I doubt you will find much below what the can- 
dor of the openly friendly gentlemen have represented. You 
will see by my letter to Mr. Franklin what difficulties lie in 
my way with regard to my residence among you, which oth- 
erwise would, doubtless, be vastly agreeable to me. How- 
ever, as I do think in earnest, if practicable, to make a tour 
to Philadelphia in acknowledgment of the great kindness you 
express towards me, I shall most gratefully accept of your 
kind invitation, and let you know beforehand when to ex- 
pect me. If I can come at all it will be before the time 
you mention, but I would first see my brethren here together 
at our Commencement on the 2d week in Sept., by convers- 
ing with whom I shall be the better able to make a judg- 
ment whether a remove would be practicable. Meantime, 
I remain, Sir, etc., 

S.J. 

The next letter of Franklin, so characteristic of 

the man, goes more deeply into the objections which 
11 



162 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Johnson had raised, and intimates to him that his " tal- 
ents for the education of youth were the gift of Crod," 
and it was his duty to employ them for the public 
service.^ It shows too the writer's practical wisdom 
in regard to the extension of the Church : — 

Philadelphia, Aug. 23, 1750. 

Dear Sir, — We received your favor of the 16th inst. 
Mr. Peters will hardly have time to write to you per this 
post, and I must be short. Mr. Francis spent the last even- 
ing with me, and we were all glad to hear that you seriously 
meditate a visit after the middle of next month, and that 
you will inform us by a line when to expect you. We 
drank your health and Mrs. Johnson's, remembering your 
kind entertainment of us at Stratford. 

I think, with you, that nothing is of more importance for 
the public weal, than to form and train up youth in wis- 
dom and virtue. Wise and good men are, in my opinion, 
the strength of a state far more so than riches or arms, which, 
under the management of ignorance and wickedness, often 
draw on destruction, instead of promoting the safety of a 
people. And though the culture bestowed on youth be suc- 
cessful only with a few, yet the influence of those few, for 
the service in their power, may be very great. Even a sin- 
gle woman, that was wise, by her wisdom saved a city. 

I think, also, that general virtue is more probably to be ex- 
pected and obtained from the education of youth than from 
the exhortation of adult persons ; bad habits and vices of the 
mind being, hke diseases of the body, more easily prevented 
than cured. 

I think, moreover, that talents for the education of youth 
are the gift of God ; and that he on whom they are be- 
stowed, whenever a way is opened for the use of them, is as 
strongly called as if he heard a voice from heaven. Nothing 
more surely pointing out duty, in a public service, than abil- 
ity and opportunity of performing it. 

1 This letter was first printed in the Port Folio, 1809, and it also appears in Sparks' 
WorJcs of Franklin, vol. vii. pp. 47-50. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 163 

I have not yet discoursed with Dr. Jenney concerning your 
removal hither. You have reason, I own, to doubt whether 
your coming on the foot I proposed would not be disagree- 
able to him, though I think it ought not. For should his 
particular interest be somewhat affected by it, that ought not 
to stand in competition with the general good ; especially as 
it cannot be much affected, he being old, and rich, and with- 
out children. I will however learn his sentiments before tlie 
next post. But whatever influence they might have on your 
determinations about removing, they need have none on your 
intention of visiting. And if you favor us with the visit, it 
is not necessary that you should previously write to him to 
learn his dispositions about your removal, since you will see 
him, and when we are all together those things may be better 
settled in conversation than by letters at a distance. Your 
tenderness of the Church's peace is truly laudable ; but, me- 
thinks, to build a new church in a growing place is not 
properly dividing but multiplying ; and will really be a 
means of increasing the number of those who worship God 
in that way. Many who cannot now be accommodated in 
the church go to other places or stay at home ; and if we 
had another church, many, who go to other places or stay at 
home, would go to church. I suppose the interest of the 
Church has been far from suffering in Boston by the building 
of two new churches there in my memory. I had for several 
years nailed against the wall of my house, a pigeon-box that 
would hold six pair ; and though they bred as fast as my 
neighbor's pigeons, I never had more than six pair ; the old 
and strong driving out the young and weak, and obliging 
them to seek new habitations. At length I put up an addi- 
tional box, with apartments for entertaining twelve pair more, 
and it was soon filled with inhabitants, by the overflowings of 
my first box and of others in the neighborhood. This I take 
to be a parallel case with the building a new church here. 

Your years, I think, are not so many as to be an objection 
of any weight, esj)ecially considering the vigor of your con- 
stitution. For the small-pox, if it should spread here, you 



164 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

might inoculate witk great probability of safety ; and I think 
that distemper generally more favorable here than further 
northward. Your objection about the politeness of Philadel- 
phia, and your imagined rusticity, is mere compliment ; and 
your diffidence of yourself absolutely groundless. 

My humble respects, if you please, to your brethren at the 
Commencement. I hope they will advise you to what is most 
for the good of the whole, and then I think they will advise 
you to move hither. 

Please to tender my best respects and service to Mrs. 
Johnson and your son. 
I am, dear Sir, 

Your obliged and affectionate, humble serv*, 

B. Feanklin. 

Illness prevented Johnson from making his contem- 
plated visit. Franklin wrote him again and gave up 
all expectation of seeing him immediately, as the 
small-pox was spreading in the city, and it would not 
be prudent to expose himself to its dangers : — 

DeAB Sie, — I am sorry to hear of your illness. If you 
have not been used to the fever-and-ague let me give you one 
caution. Don't imagine yourself thoroughly cured, and so 
omit the use of the bark too soon. Remember to take the 
preventing doses faithfully. If you were to continue taking 
a dose or two every day for two or three weeks after the fits 
have left you, 'twould not be amiss. If you take the powder 
mixed quick in a tea-cup of milk, 'tis no way disagreeable, 
but looks and even tastes like chocolate. 'Tis an old saying: 
That an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, — and 
certainly a true one, with regard to the bark ; a little of 
which will do more in preventing the fits than a great deal in 
removing them. 

But if your health would permit I should not expect the 
pleasure of seeing you soon. The small-pox spreads apace, 
and is now in all quarters ; yet as we have only children to 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 165 

have it, and our Doctors inoculate apace, I believe they will 
soon drive it through the town ; so that you may possibly 
visit us with safety in the spring. In the mean time we 
should be glad to know the result you came to after con- 
sulting your brethren at the Commencement. Messrs. Peters 
and Francis have directed me on all occasions to present their 
compliments to you. Please to acquaint me if you propose 
to make any considerable additions to the " Ethics," that I 
may be able in the proposals to compute the bigness of the 
book. 

I am, with sincere esteem and respect, dear Sir, 
Your most obliged humble servant, 

B. Feanklin. 

Philadelphia, September 13, 1750. 

Inclosed I return the good Bishop's letter with thanks. 

Before this correspondence was begun, Dr. Johnson 
received a second invitation to the Rectorship of 
Trinity Church, Newport, made vacant by the death 
of his friend, the Rev. James Honyman. But he felt 
that his removal Avould prejudice the interests of the 
Church in Connecticut, and he finally declined it, and 
suggested to the Vestry whether it would not be ad- 
visable to think of Dr. Cutler's son for the place. He 
had been a long time officiating in England, and 
was " doubtless," he said, " very well experienced and 
accomplished." The same motive which led him to 
decline Newport helped him to come to a determina- 
tion about Philadelphia. He had been quite ready 
to give his friends there the benefit of his counsels in 
regard to their Institution ; but the following letters 
were the last that related to the acceptance of their 
proposals. 



166 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Philadelphia, Deceviher 24, 1751. 

Dear Sir, — I received your favor of the lltli inst. and 
thank yon for the hint you give of the omission in the 
" Idea." The " Sacred Classics " are read in the English 
school, though I forgot to mention them. And I shall pro- 
pose at the meeting of the Schools, after the Holidays, that 
the English master begin and continue to read select portions 
of them daily with the prayers as you advise. 

But if you can be thus useful to us at this distance, how 
much more might you be so if you were present with us, 
and had the immediate inspection and government of the 
schools. I wrote to you in my last that Mr. Martin onr 
Rector died suddenly of a quinsy. His body was carried to 
the Church, respectfully attended by the trustees, all the 
masters and scholars in their order, and a great number of 
the citizens. Mr. Peters preached his funeral sermon, and 
gave him the just and honorable character he deserved. 
The schools are now broke up for Christmas, and will not 
meet again till the 7th of January. Mr. Peters took care 
of the Latin and Greek School after Mr. Martin's death 
till the breaking up. And Mr. Allison, a dissenting min- 
ister, has promised to continue that care for a month after 
their next meeting. Is it impossible for you to make us a 
visit in that time ? I hope by the next post to know some- 
thing of your sentiments, that I may be able to speak more 
positively to the Trustees concerning the probability of your 
being prevailed with to remove hither. 

The English master is Mr. Dove, a gentleman about your 
age, who formerly taught grammar sixteen years at Chiches- 
ter in England. He is an excellent master, and his scholars 
have made a surprising progress. 

I shall send some of the " CEconomies " to Mr. Havens per 
next post. If you have a spare one of your " Essays on the 
Method of Study," the English edition, please to send it me. 

My wife joins in the compliments of the season to you 
and Mrs. Johnson, with, dear Sir, 

Your affectionate humble servant, 

B. Feankltn 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 167 

Answer : — 

Deah Sir, — I now write my most thankful acknowledg- 
ments for your two kind letters of December 24 and January 
8, and have received your most obliging letters of the sum- 
mer before last, to which you refer me. There was one of 
August 23, to which I did not make a particular reply by 
reason of my illness at that time. In that you reasoned, I 
own, in a very forcible manner upon the head of duty. You 
argued that ability, with opportunity, manifestly pointed out 
duty, as though it were a voice from Heaven. This, Sir, I 
agree to, and therefore have always endeavored to use what 
little ability I have that way in the best manner I could, 
having never been without pupils of one sort or other half 
a year at a time, and seldom that, for thirty-eight years. 
And, thank God, I have the great satisfaction to see some of 
them in the first pulpits, not only in Connecticut, but also in 
Boston and New York, and others in some of the first places 
in the land. But I am now plainly in the decline of life, both 
as to activity of body and vigor of mind, and must, therefore, 
consider myself as being an Emeritus^ and unfit for any new 
situation in the world or to enter on any new business, espe- 
cially at such a distance from my hitherto sphere of action 
and my present situation, where I have as much duty on my 
hands as I am capable of and where my removal would make 
too great a breach to be countervailed by any good I am ca- 
pable of doing elsewhere, for which I have but a small chance 
left for much opportunity. So that I must beg my good 
friends at Philadelphia to excuse me, and I pray God they 
may be directed to a better choice. And as Providence has 
so unexpectedly provided so worthy a person as Mr. Dove 
for your other purpose, I hope the same good Providence 
will provide for this. I am not personally acquainted with 
Mr. Winthrop, the Professor at Cambridge, but by what I 
have heard of him, perhaps he might do. But I rather- 
think it would be your best way to try if you cannot get 
some friend and faithful gentleman at home, of good judg- 



168 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

ment and care, to inquire and try if some worthy Fellow of 
one or other of the Universities could not be obtained. Per- 
haps Mr. Peters or Mr. Dove may know of some acquaint- 
ance of theirs, that might do likely: duleius ex ipsis fortibus. 
Your son intimated that you had thought of a voyage home 
yourself ; if you should you might undoubtedly look out a 
fit person to be had, and you had better do as you can for 
some time than not be well provided. I could, however, wish 
to make you a visit in the Spring, if the way were safe, but 
it seems the small-pox is propagating at New York, and per- 
haps you will be scarcely free of it. Meantime you have, in- 
deed, my heart with you as though I were ever so much with 
you in presence, and if there were any good office in my 
power you might freely command it. 

I thank you for sending the two sheets of my " Noetica " 
which are done with much care. I find no defects worth 
mentioning but what were probably my own. At page 62, 1. 
19, there should have been a (;) after " universal," and 1. 21 
a (;) after " affirmative." On reviewing the former sheets I 
observe a neglect, p. 30, 1. 24, " on account of which," and p. 
36, 1. 3, there should be a (,) after " is." ^ 

I am very much obliged to you for Short and the Almanac 
and my wife for hers. I hav6 had five parcels of the " (Econ- 
omies " and Fisher. I think you told me they were a dollar 
each parcel, besides that of Havens, who desires you to ser-d 
him another parcel, and begs you to send one or more of 
your pieces on " Electricity," published in England. By your 
son's account I am much charmed with this, and beg if you 
have a spare copy to send it me. And as you desire a copy 
of my " Introduction," since I had many sent me from home, 
I send half a dozen, of which with my humble service to 
Messrs. Peters and Francis and your son, pray them to accept 
each a copy. My wife and son, with me, desire our service 
may be acceptable to them and Mrs. Franklin and your son. 

I am, Sir, etc. 

S. J. 

1 In the copy before me there are pen corrections of these errors by Johnson him- 
self. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 169 

The work referred to in the foregoing letter was 
the '' Elementa Philosophica : containing chiefly Noet- 
ica, or Things relating to the Mind or Understanding ; 
and Ethica, or Things relating to the Moral Beha- 
viour." This was the summary title, and three great 
philosophers were grouped together in the issue of 
the work. It was written by Johnson, dedicated, 
" from the deepest sense of gratitude," to the Bishop 
of Cloyne, and printed by Benjamin Franklin. The 
first part, Noetica, was mainly new, prepared for 
young beginners to show them the principles of knowl- 
edge and the progress of the human mind towards its 
highest perfection ; and in the advertisement, Johnson 
said : " Though I would not be too much attached to 
any one author or system, exclusive of any others ; 
yet whoever is versed in the writings of Bishop 
Berkeley will be sensible that I am in a particular 
manner beholden to that excellent philosopher for 
several thoughts that occur in the following Tract." 
The remaining part was a second edition of his ^^ Sys- 
tem of Morality," described in the previous chapter. 

The graceful dedication to Berkeley was too late to 
be seen by that eminent man. The correspondence 
between them had been kept up, and every opportu- 
nity improved to communicate with each other, as the 
following letters will show. 

Cloyne, July 17, 1750. 
Rev. Sib, — A few months ago I had an opportunity of 
writing to you and Mr. Honyman by an inhabitant of the 
Rhode Island Government. I would not, nevertheless, omit 
the present occasion of saluting you, and letting you know 
that it gave me great pleasure to hear from Mr. Bourk, a pas- 
senger from those parts, that a late sermon of yours at New 
Haven hath had a v5ry good effect in reconciling several to 



170 LIFE AND CORRESrONDENCE 

the Church. I find also by a letter from Mr. Clap, that 
learning continues to make notable advances in Yale College. 
This gives me great satisfaction, and that God may bless 
your worthy endeavors and crown them with success, is the 
sincere prayer of, Rev. Sir, 

Your faithful brother and obedient servt, 

G. Cloynb. 

P. S. I hope your ingenious sons are still an ornament to 
Yale College, and tread in their father's footsteps. 

December 17. 

My Loed, — I yesterday received your Lordship's most 
kind letter of July 17, from New Haven, and as there is a 
vessel soon going from New York, I take the opportunity of 
making my most humble acknowledgments to your Lordship, 
though I lately wrote by the way of New York, my humble 
thanks for your kind letter before received which came not 
to hand till last summer. In that letter 1 informed ' you of 
the death of good Mr. Honyman, and of the controversy be- 
tween the Governor of New York and their Assembly, which 
hath hindered their College from going forward, — since 
which, things have been so far accommodated that they have 
nominated the Trustees, and I hope they will proceed. 
They are very thankful for the notice you so kindly took 
of what I had mentioned to you in their behalf, and will 
form their College upon the model you sviggested to me. I 
intended to have written by Mr. Bourk, but he was just going 
when I saw him, and I had not time, nor had I then re- 
ceived your Lordship's last kind letter. 

We should soon have a flourishing Church at New Haven, if 
we could get a minister, — but the Secretary of the Society 
writes very discouragingly about expecting any more ministers 
for these parts. Here is one of your Lordship's scholars, one 
Colton,! that is a worthy candidate, and another equally 
deserving, one Camp,^ but we cannot yet have leave for their 

1 Jonathan Colton was afterwards admitted to Holy Orders in England, and died 
on his returning voyage to this country in 1752. 

2 Ichabod Camp, his companion, a graduate of Yale College, 1743, was ordained at 
the same time. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 171 

going home for Orders. No endeavors of mine sball be 
wanting, my Lord, while I live, to promote sound learning 
and religion in these parts, and particularly your Lordship's 
excellent system, in order to which I am preparing a short 
draught for the use of pupils, but it will much want your 
Lordship's correction. 

I thank God my sons yet give me good hopes, and there 
is scarce anything I want to hear of more than of Mr. Harry's 
welfare and of your Lordship's family, for whom I most 
ardently pray. I heartily thank your Lordship for your 
prayers and good wishes for me and mine, and beg the con- 
tinuance of them, and remain, my Lord, your Lordship's etc. 

S. J. 

Berkeley wrote one more letter to Johnson, partly 
in answer to the foregoing, and it is believed to have 
been his last to the g-reat American friend who never 
ceased to love him for his virtues, and to honor him 
for his learning and philosophy. It was dated : — 

Cloyne, July "25, 1751. 

Rev. Sir, — I would not let Mr. Hall depart without a 
line from me in acknowledgment of your letter which he put 
into my hands. As for Mr. Hutchinson's writings, I am not 
acquainted with them. I live in a remote corner where 
many modern things escape nie. Only this I can say, that 1 
have observed that author to be mentioned as an. enthusiast, 
which gave me no prepossession in his favor. 

I am glad to find by Mr. Clap's letter, and the speci- 
mens of literature inclosed in his packet, that learning con- 
tinues to make a progress in Yale College , and hope that 
virtue and Christian charity may keep pace with it. 

The letters which you and Mr. Clap say you had written, 
in answer to my last, never came into my hands. I am glad 
to hear, by Mr. Hall, of the good health and condition of 
yourself and family. I pray God to bless you and yours, 
and prosper your good endeavors. I am Rev. Sir, 
Your faithful friend and humble serv*^ 

G. Cloyne. 



172 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

As soon as his " Elementa Philosophica " was pub- 
lished, Johnson wrote to Berkeley and sent him a copy, 
not knowing that he had broken up at Cloyne, and 
exchanged its gloomy retirement and the life of a 
recluse philosopher for the classic shades and ideal 
beauty of Oxford. His son George had been entered 
a student at Christ Church, and parental tenderness, 
joined to other considerations,^ led him to follow him 
with his family and make his future residence at the 
seat of the venerable University in the " fair vale of 
the Cher well and the Isis." The issue of " Elementa 
Philosophica " must have been about the time when he 
was settling his affairs, preparatory to the final depar- 
ture from Cloyne. The following letter shows this as 
well as the use to which the work was put and the es- 
timation in which it was held. It gives, moreover, a 
sketch of the progress of the Institution of which 
Johnson had declined the oversight. 

Philadelphia, July 2, — 52. 

Rev. Sir, — I have sent you, via New York, twenty-four 
of your books bound as those I sent per post. The remainder 
of the fifty are binding in a plainer manner, and shall be sent 
as soon as done and left at Mr. Stuyvesant's as you order. 

Our Academy, which you so kindly inquire after, goes on 
well. Since Mr. Martin's death the Latin and Greek school 
has been vmder the care of Mr. Allison, a Dissenting minis- 
ter, well skilled in those languages and long practiced in 
teaching. But he refused the Rectorship, or to have any- 
thing to do with the government of the other schools. So 
that remains vacant, and obliges the Trustees to more fre- 
quent visits. Vv^e have now several young gentlemen desir- 
ous of entering on the study of Philosophy, and Lectures 
are to be opened this week. Mr. Allison undertakes Logic 

1 See Eraser's Life of Berkeley, eh. ix. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 173 

and Ethics, making your work liis text to comment and 
lecture upon. Mr. Peters and some other gentlemen under- 
take the other branches, till we shall be provided with a 
Rector capable of the whole, who may attend wholly to the 
instructions of youth in the higher parts of learning as they 
come out fitted from the lower schools. Our proprietors 
have lately wrote that they are extremely well pleased -vvitli 
the design, will take our Seminary under their patronage, 
give us a charter, and, as an earnest of their benevolence, 
Five Hundred Pounds sterling. And by our opening a 
charity school, in which near one hundred poor children are 
taught Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, with the rudi- 
ments of religion, we have gained the general good will of all 
sorts of people, from whence donations and bequests may 
be reasonably expected to accrue from time to time. This is 
our present situation, and we think it a promising one ; es- 
pecially as the reputation of our schools increases, the masters 
being all very capable and diligent and giving great satis- 
faction to all concerned. 

I have heard of no exceptions yet made to your work, nor 
do I expect any, unless to those parts that savor of what is 
called Berheleyanum^ which is not well understood here. 
When any occur I shall communicate them. 

With great esteem and respect, I am, dear Sir, 
Your obhged humble serv', 

B. Feankmn. 

Berkeley had not long enjoyed the academic re- 
pose of Oxford before his family and friends were 
thrown into the deepest affliction by his sudden death. 
He had received neither the book nor the letter 
from Johnson when it occurred, on the evening of 
Sunday, the 14th of January, 1753, but the author 
had sent another copy of his work to Dr. Thos. Seeker, 
then Bishop of Oxford and almost the only survivor 
of the distinguished men in England with whom 



174 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Berkeley corresponded in his later years. The funeral 
solemnities were scarcely over when he wrote to his 
son and apprized him of its reception and offered it to 
his acceptance, and he in acknowledging the Bishop's 
kindness said — "Dr. Johnson's book I have not 
seen, but shall be greatly obliged to you for a copy 
of it, as I suppose it is not reprinted in England, and 
as my dear father had a great esteem for the author." 
The best and most authentic account of Berkeley's 
death is contained in the following letter to Dr. John- 
son, written by this son, and dated : — 

Christ Church, October 16, 1753. 
Rev. Sir, — With inexpressible sorrow I repeat the dis- 
mal account (for I suppose you have heard it before) of my 
dearest and ever honored father's removal to the enjoyment 
of eternal rewards, which happened suddenly and without the 
least previous notice or pain on Sunday evening, Jan. 14th, 
as he was sitting with my mother, sister, and myself, and 
although all possible means were instantly used, no symp- 
tom of life ever appeared after, nor could the physicians as- 
sign any cause for his death, as they were certain it was not 
an apoplexy. He had made his will at Cloyne a few days 
before he left it. (which he did in the middle of August), and 
has very wisely left us all entirely under the care, and in the 
power of the best of mothers. He arrived at Oxford on the 
25th of August and had received great benefit from the 
change of air, and by God's blessing on Tar Water, insomuch 
that for some years he had not been in better health than he 
was the instant before he left us. He had been indeed much 
out of order the whole summer at Cloyne, which prevented 
his coming over with me in May, 1752. His remains are 
interred in the Cathedral of Christ Church, and next week 
a monument to his memory will be erected with an inscrip- 
tion by Dr. Markham, a student of this College. ^ A few 

1 Berkeley provided in his will that his body should be burled in the Church- 
yard of the parish where he diedl 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, 175 

days after this greatest of human misfortunes befell us I 
received from Clojaie your letter to my dearest father, but 
his agent there has not yet got an opportunity of sending 
me the Book mentioned in it, but the Bishop of Oxford 
has been so good as to send it to me, and you must give me 
leave to say that (except those wrote by him to whom this 
was dedicated) I never read any with equal pleasure, and 
the more so as it shows that a person so very capable and 
willing to spread his Philosophy, understands it so thor- 
oughly. This little book contains and teaches the wisc?om 
of ages and numberless volumes, and I entreat you would ac- 
cept my hearty thanks for the honor you have done my 
dearest parent by choosing him for its patron, and also for 
the improvement I have met with in it. 

It is now high time that I should apologize for the liberty 
I have taken, and which nothing should have encouraged me 
to but the great friendship that subsisted between you and 
him whose image is ever fresh before me, and whose mem- 
ory shall ever be most dear to me. I have inherited his high 
esteem for you, Sir, and this will, I hope, plead my excuse for 
giving you this trouble. My mother, who remembers you 
with the truest regard, desires me to assure you of her most 
sincere services. Your countryman, my brother,^ has been 
near two years abroad in the south of France for his health, 
■which has been very bad ever since a violent fever which 
he had some years ago. He is now, I thank God, much bet- 
ter, and is lately returned to Dublin, from whence we expect 
him here next summer. Not knowing any other way of 

In the summer of 1870, in company with two friends, I spent a day at Cloyne, 
and walked through its narrow streets, and under the ancient elms that overshad- 
ow the dwellings of this thriftless village. I thought of Berkeley at every turn 
and was disappointed when we entered the Cathedral to find no memorial of the 
great name associated with it for nearly a score of years. The mysterious Round 
Tower, the Cave, the See House and the Palace garden, were there as they were a 
century ago, and the myrtle and the ivy grew in wonderful luxuriance, but there was 
nothing to perpetuate the memory of the good Bishop, or to show that there had ever 
been a people here who knew his intellectual greatness. 

1 Henry, the eldest son, born at Newport. In Eraser's admirable Life of BerJce- 
ky, p. 330, it is conjectured that he " had been left behind in Ireland," when the 
removal to Oxford took place. 



176 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

conveyance, I have taken tlie liberty of inclosing this to Dr. 
Bearcroft, the Secretary of your Society (of which I have the 
honor to be a member), to forward it. If ever you can think 
of anything in which I can render you the least service, I as- 
sure you that nothing will more highly oblige me than receiv- 
ing any commands from one whom I so honor and esteem, and 
to whom I am a most dutiful and faithful humble servant. 

Geo. Berkeley. 

A third edition of Dr. Johnson's " Elements of Phi- 
losophy," corrected and enlarged, was published in 
London in the spring of 1754, under the editorship 
of Rev. William Smith, afterwards Provost of the 
College of Philadelphia. He sent by him letters to 
several of his friends, and among the rest to Mr. Ber- 
riman, who answered, — 

February 7, 1754. 

Dear Sir, — I had the pleasure of yours by Mr. Smith, 
but have as yet had but little of that gentleman's company ; 
I once called at his lodgings, and found him at home ; but 
having no time to stay then, he promised to favor me with 
a visit, which promise he has not yet fulfilled : however, I 
hope he will do it hereafter, as I understood by him he in- 
tended to continue some time in England before he returned 
to your parts. 

Dr. Bearcroft is made Master of the Charter House, but 
still holds his place of Secretary to the Society. There has 
been some talk of Capt. Thomlinson for Treasurer. Per- 
haps I may let you know more about it before I seal up this 
letter. 

Mr. Pollen is appointed Missionary to Rhode Island. He 
is a worthy clergyman and esteemed a good scholar ; he was 
contemporary at C. C. C. Oxon, with your friend Dr. Burton, 
who is now Vice Provost of Eton College. I would beg 
leave to recommend him to your favorable notice, and that 
you would advise and assist him in any case that may need 
your helping hand. He is a traveller, and has seen the 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 177 

world ; and has been lately employed in an Episcopal chapel 
at Glasgow, but never was in your parts, and being quite a 
stranger to such a kind of settlement, may often have occa- 
sion to consult you, who are so much known, and so well es- 
teemed by all around you. We have had such bad accounts 
of poor Mr. Clieckley that we fear the next news will bring 
an account of his death. 

I thank God I am rather the better for the change of my 
situation, and at this time in tolerable good health ; but I must 
never expect to get free from my old companions, the cough 
and shortness of breath, but God be praised, they are not by 
many degrees so bad with me as with many others : and I 
ought to be very thankful for the long intervals I have, and 
the health and strength afforded me to attend my duty in the 
Church. I quitted my Lecture at Aldermary at Lady- Day 
last and have done scarce any duty in the Church but supply- 
ing my own pulpit or desk on Sunday mornings, since mid- 
summer. I find my strength somewhat decayed, and my 
eyes begin to wax dim (though I can make no use of spec- 
tacles), and I have this day completed my grand climacteric. 

Feb. 15. — The choice of a Treasurer came on at the 
anniversary meeting of the Society in the Vestry at Bow 
Church. Mr. Pearson (recommended by the Bishops) was 
elected, and nobody named in opposition to hun. 

I am affectionately yours, 

J. Berriman. 

To the London edition of the " Elements of Philos- 
ophy " was annexed " A Letter containing some Im- 
partial Thoughts concerning the Settlement of Bish- 
ops in America, by Dr. Johnson and some of his 
Brethren." In this connection the following letter is 
important, written by the Bishop of Oxford from the — 

Deanery of St. Paul's, Marcli 19, 1754. 
Good Dr. Joetnsof, — I should have returned you my 
hearty thanks before now, if extraordinary business had not 

12 



178 LIFE AND CORKESPONDENCE 

put it partly out of my power, and partly out of my thoughts, 
for your favors by Mr. Smith. He is indeed a very ingen- 
ious and able, and seems a very well disposed young man. 
And if he had pursued his intention of residing a while at 
Oxford, I should have hoped for more of his company and 
acquaintance. Nor would he, I think, have failed to see 
more fully, what I flatter myself he is convinced of without 
it, that our Universities do not deserve the sentence which 
is passed on them by the author whom he cites, and whose 
words he adopts in page 84 of his " General Idea of the 
College of Mirania." ^ He assures me they are effaced in 
almost all the copies. I wish they had not been printed, or 
that the leaf had been cancelled. But the many valuable 
things which there are in that performance and in the pa- 
pers which he published at New York, will atone for this 
blemish with all candid persons. And there seems a fair 
prospect of his doing great service in the place where he is 
going to settle. 

I am particularly obliged to you for sending me your Book; 
of which I made a very acceptable present to the late excel- 
lent Bishop of Cloyne's son, — a most serious, and sensible, 
and prudent young man, whom his father placed at Christ 
Church, and who, with his mother and sister, spent the last 
summer with me in Oxfordshire. I have now lately received 
from Mr. Smith another copy of it, printed here, and have 
read several parts of it, and all with much pleasure. You 
have taken very proper care to keep those who do not enter 
into all the philosophy of the good and great man from being 
shocked at it, and you have explained and recommended just 
reasoning, virtue, and religion, so as to make them not only 
well understood, but ardently loved. 

Would God there were any present hopes of executing 
what the concluding piece unanswerably proves to be harm- 

1 This was an imaginary scheme drawn up and published at the desire of some 
gentlemen of New York, who were appointed to receive proposals relative to the 
establishment of a college in that province, and it contained a pretty exact repre- 
sentation of what the author endeavored to realize in the Institution over which he 
afterwards presided at Philadelphia. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 179 

less, useful, and requisite. But we have done all we can here 
in vain ; and must wait for more favorable times ; which 
I think it will contribute not a little to bring on, if the 
ministry of our Church in America, by friendly converse with 
the principal Dissenters, can satisfy them that nothing more 
is intended or desired than that our Church may enjoy the 
full benefit of its own institutions, as all others do. For so 
long as they are uneasy and remonstrate, regard will be paid 
to them and their friends here by our ministers of state. 
And yet it will be a hard matter for you to prevent their 
being uneasy, while they fhid you gaining ground upon 
them. That so much of the money of the Society was em- 
ployed in supporting Episcopal congregations amongst them, 
was industriously made an argument against the late col- 
lection. And though, God be thanked, the collection hath 
notwithstanding proved a very good one, yet unless we be 
cautious on that head, we shall have farther clamor ; and 
one knows not what the effect of it may be. Our friends 
in America will furnish us, I hope, from time to time, with 
all such facts, books, observations, and reasonings, as may 
enable us the better to defend our common cause. 
I am with great regard and esteem. Sir, 

Your loving brother and humble servant, 

Tho. Oxford. 

Johnson felt some disappointment that his work 
was not more generally appreciated, and appeared 
to regret that he had ventured on its publication. 
The cost of printing it was likely to exceed the 
amount of sales, — as it wds not so well calculated for 
popular reading as for use in educational institu- 
tions. Franklin relieved him from any anxiety on 
this subject, and wrote him a kind and encouraging 
letter, offering to assume the loss, should there be 
any: — 



180 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

I'lIILADELPHIA, Ajml 15, 1754. 

Deae, Sir, — When i returned from Marjdand in Febru- 
ary last, I found your favor of Jan'y 1, but having mislaid 
it soon after, I deferred answering till I should find it again, 
which I have now done. I think you ought not to be, as 
you say you are, vexed at yourself that you offered your 
" Noetica "to be printed ; for though the demand for it 
in this part of the world has not jet been equal to the 
merit of the work, yet you will see by the inclosed news- 
paper they are reprinting it in England, where good judges 
being more plenty than with us, it will, I doubt not, acquire 
a reputation that may not only make it extensively useful 
there, but bring it more into notice in its native America. 

As to the use of it in our Academy, you are to consider 
that though our plan is large, we have as yet been able to 
carry little more into execution than the grammatical and 
mathematical parts : the rest must follow gradually, as the 
youth come forward and we can provide suitable masters. 
Some of the eldest scholars, who have now left us, did read 
it ; but those at present in the Academy are chiefly engaged 
in lower studies. For my o^vn part, I know too well the 
badness of our general taste, to expect any great profit in 
printing it ; though I did think it might sell better than I 
find it does, having struck off five hundred, and not disposed 
of more than fifty in these parts. There were parcels sent to 
New York, Rhode Island, and Boston, and advertised there, 
though it seems you have not heard of it. How they sold I 
have not learnt, and did not remember to inquire when I 
was there last year. I am far from thinking it right that 
the loss should fall on you, who took so much pains in the 
composition. You gave me no other expectation than what 
I might gather from your saying in your letter of May 10, 
1750, you believed you could dispose of one hundred copies 
in Connecticut, and perhaps another hundred might be dis- 
posed of at Boston. All I would request of you is, that if 
you think fit, you would take the trouble of writing to such 
of the Ministers of your Church in New England and New 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 181 

York as you ai'e acquainted with, and desire them to recom- 
mend the book to their friends ; and if, with those you have 
had, all that shall be disposed of in those Colonies amount to 
two hundred, I will cheerfully take my chance with the re- 
mainder. And if you cannot procure the sale of so many, 
make yourself easy nevertheless ; I shall be perfectly satis- 
fied with your endeavor. With my best respects to good 
Mrs. Johnson and your valuable sons, 

I am, dear Sir, very affectionately. 

Your most humble servant, 

B. Franklin. 

Among the friends and correspondents of Dr. John- 
son, Lieutenant-governor Golden was not forgotten in 
the distribution of the spare copies of his "Noetica." 
It has been seen how these two men discussed philo- 
sophical subjects and exchanged publications, and the 
following letters, after glancing at the points of their 
disagreement, advert to matters of domestic interest, 
and show the concurrence of their ideas upon the 
subject of education : — 

December 20, 1752. 

Sm, — I sometime since received your book which Mr. 
Nicholls told me you was pleased to send me. Since that 
time my thoughts happened by several incidents to be so 
much engaged that I could not write to you in the manner 
I inclined to do, and they continued so when I sent you 
the " Principles of Action in Matter," about ten days or a 
fortnight since. I had at that time just received three copies 
of it from England, and had only time to run it curso- 
rily over to correct the most obvious errors in the press, 
which happen to be numerous. I know we (you and I) 
differ in the fundamentals of that Essay, and for that rea- 
son I expect from you the strongest arguments that can 
be brought against it, and therefore, if I am under an error, 
you are the most capable to set me right, and I assure you 



182 LIFE AND CORKESPONDENCE 

that I have that esteem of your judgment that I unwil!- 
ingly differ from you. Pray then, Sir, let me have your 
objections to those principles with that freedom that ought 
always to subsist in philosophical inquiries. 

In the sixth page of your "Noetica," you say our per- 
ceptions cannot be produced in our minds without a cause 
(so far we agree) ; or, which is the same thing, by any im- 
agined, unintelligent, inert, or unactive cause. I likewise agree 
that an unactive cause and no cause are synonymous ; but I 
am not convinced that intelligence is an essential concomitant 
to all action, for then I could not conceive the action of a 
mill without supposing it endowed with intelligence. You 
seem likewise to think that the words inert and unactive 
are synonymous. Sir Isaac Newton was certainly of a dif- 
ferent opinion, as appears by the third definition in the be- 
ginning of his " Principia," viz. : Materia vis inerta est Po- 
tentia resistendi, etc. We certainly can have no conception 
of Force or Power devoid of all kind of action. Now, Sir, 
these are fundamental differences. One of us must be 
under a very great mistake, and if you incline to write with 
the same freedom that I incline to think on these subjects, 
I hope we shall not continue long of a different opinion. 
Inert in common discourse is often synonymous with unactive, 
but I take it in the sense that philosophers of late use the 
word Inertia when they say vis inertice, which certainly can- 
not mean mere inaction. I shall say nothing more on these 
matters of speculation, that I may pass to a subject of more 
immediate concern. 

It gave me a great deal of pleasure when Mr. De Lancey 
resolved to send his children to you for their education in 
learning, as I am confident they will thereby imbibe prin- 
ciples which will be of the greatest use to themselves and 
to their neighbors in whatever course of life they shall 
afterwards take to. I am under little concern as to their 
learning languages, or as to their skill in what may be called 
the learned sciences, but I am earnestly desirous that they 
have the true principles of good manners early implanted in 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 188 

their minds ; to have their affections always moved by uni- 
versal benevolence, and to have a true sense of honor where- 
in it really consists. It is from you that I hope they will 
receive these great advantages, of wliich they will find the 
benefits in every station of life and in all emergencies or 
turns of fortune. These I beg you will again and again ex- 
plain to them and never cease to inculcate upon their minds. 
As it is not determined what course of life any of them shall 
pursue, it may be best to instruct them in such parts of learn- 
ing as will be of use in every station. I think knowledge in 
geography as useful as any other part for these purposes, 
especially the modern geography with an account of the 
present state of the kingdoms and republics in Europe and 
of the great monarchies in other parts of the world. Peter, 
in a letter he wrote to me from West Chester, tells me that 
he inclines to study Divinity and to fit himself for that study 
with you. I shall be far from diverting these thoughts, be- 
cause he may be as useful in that way as in any, and the 
more so that few of any distinguished families in America 
apply themselves to the Church. His applying to it may 
(if others follow his example) prevent a contempt of the 
character which otherwise may in time be produced. For 
this reason I do not doubt but the bishops in England will 
think it for the interest of the Church to encourage any 
young gentlemen in America who shall turn their thoughts 
that way from worthy principles. 

I had thoughts of writing to my grandchildren, ^ but 1 
have said all to you that I had in my thoughts to write to 
them, and therefore if you think proper you may communicate 
it to them and remember me affectionately to them and tell 
them that we are all in health. I hope to hear often from 
you. Mr. Nicholls will take care of your letters. 
I am affectionately. Sir, 

Your most humble servant, 

Cadwallader Colden. 

1 Elizabeth Golden, daughter of the Lieutenant-governor, married Peter De Lancey, 
and was the mother of eleven children, six sons and five daughters. Peter, one of 



184 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

January 29, 1753. 

The river being full of ice has deprived me of any oppor- 
tunity of sending this letter till now. We continue in health. 
Remember us again to the children. Their grand-mamma, 
uncles and aunts all join with me. 

Yours, C. C. 

Answer : — 

February 19. 
Sir, — I sent you that Book without any imagination of 
its being worthy your perusal. I only meant it as a testi- 
mony of my humble respect and gratitude, though not with- 
out my wishes that so far as you should condescend [to] cast 
your eye upon it, if you see anything that might much tend 
to mislead youth in the entrance of their studies, for whose 
use it was written, you would be so good as to intimate it 
to me. I now return you my humble thanks for your very 
ingenious performance and this kind letter upon it. I have 
perused it with some care, though I have not yet had it 
long enough to spend so much thought upon it as I intend. 
I am glad to see the whole of it published, and doubt not 
but it will be an acceptable present to the public, and must 
own that now I see the whole of it together, it appears to 
me in a much more advantageous light than that piece of 
it did before, and do not think we differ so much in the 
principles you set out with as you seem to imagine. I do not 
differ with you at all, considered as a natural philosopher, 
which is the light in which you are principally to be considered 
in that Treatise. For it is evident there are those three dis- 
tinct principles of action in nature you go upon, — media or 
endings of action I should call them as a metaphysician, re- 
ferring the same origin of them to the one great principle of 
natural discovery and action ; but which you as a natural 
philosopher, — as such going no higher, — do very well to 

the sons, did not fulfill the promise of his boyhood in regard to the Church, — hav- 
ing been killed in a duel at a comparatively early age ; but a grand-nephew of his 
father, Wm. Heathcote De Lancey, was consecrated the first Bishop of Western New 
York, May 9, 1839, and died April 5, 1865. —-MS. Letter D. Colden Murray, Dec. 
10, 1872. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 185 

consider as distinct principles. The principle of resistance of 
motion and of elasticity — and the contemporative (if I may 
so speak) of those principles in their various exertions and 
operations yon seem to have happily demonstrated — will 
well account for the phenomena, and as to what is metaphys- 
ical in your Treatise, I think you haye explained yourself to 
my satisfaction in your chapter of the Intelligent Being, § 10 
— where you allow the Intelligent Being to be the real author 
of all material (I should call them sensible) beings, and to 
govern or direct their actions in such a manner as is most 
conducive to the advantage of the whole, which you rightly 
deduce from the power of our minds over the ether in the 
nerves which we observe to quiesce till put in action by 
our hands. The reasons indeed we know not, but it is the 
fact. 

So that I believe what we seem to differ in, if at all, will 
amount to little more than words. I agree with you in 
saying " we can certainly have no conception of Force 
or Power devoid of all kind of action," and when I do so, 
it seems to me that you must with me allow that Sir Isaac's 
vis inertice is a contradiction in terms, and that that great 
man, in that definition and the explication of it, has some 
expressions that have no meaning ; for I must think it is 
plain that by Inertia (as in Ovid, pondus iners') the old 
Romans meant an utter destitution of any principle of ac- 
tivity in se, or power of self-exertion or action, terminating 
on anything without, and I don't see what right he had to 
use or define it in a quite contrary sense ; at best his expres- 
sions are figurative. 

As to that question whether the same Being that is the 
principle of action must as such be also a principle of In- 
telligence, I have nothing to say for it more than I said in 
a former letter, that it seems to follow from that principle 
" Non est philosophia extera multiplicare sine necessitate," 
and that a blind principle or power of action without Intelh- 
gence seems repugnant and useless. However it seems a 
question of little real consequence, or indeed of scarce any 



186 lifp: and correspondence 

meaning after what you allow in the chapter of the Intel- 
ligent Being ; the action of what you call matter being ac- 
cording to you derived originally from and directed by the 
Intelligent Being. And so matter is no more than merely 
His instrument, so that what you call the action of a mill or 
watch is really only a successive series of passions till you 
come to the principle of Intelligence, which will ultimately 
prove to be also the principle of the action. 

That expression of yours, page 164, " That perfect Intel- 
ligence will not act in contradiction to the action of matter," 
I should have chosen to express thus : Will not in the set- 
tled course of things act in contradiction to the Laws He 
hath established according to which He wills matter to act. 
For I cannot conceive you to imagine the action of matter 
to be independent of the Divine will. I rather imagine 
from other passages that you do with me conceive it to be 
entirely dependent, as well as matter itself, on the constant 
free exertion of the Divine will and power. 

I don't deny. Sir, but that I am yet a little in the dark 
about the operations of that elastic fluid by which you ac- 
count for gravitation. I should scarce ever say that there 
should be a perpetual return of the ethereal fluid to the 
sun as well as a perpetual flow from it, agreeable to Mr. 
Hutchinson's notion, who imagines a perpetual circulation 
of it from the sun,' and after a kind of condensation of it 
at the utmost bounds of the system, a reverberation and re- 
turn of it to the sun again ; so that according to that great 
man the effects of gravitation, circular motion, and rotation, 
will be the result of the struggle between those contrary 
tendencies. This being supposed, you and he seem well to 
coincide. I wish you had opportunity, if you have not had, 
to read his system with some attention and exactness, if 
not in his works, which are something tedious, at least in that 
beautiful short sketch of them set forth by your excellently 
great and good countryman. Lord President Forbes, in his 
" Letter to a Bishop and Thoughts on Religion." But what 
you call the different principles of Light and Ether, he sup- 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 187 

poses to be the one ethereal fluid or fire of the sun in the dif- 
ferent conditions of Light and Spirit as it flies from or re- 
turns to its fountain. Perhaps your notion and his may 
come nearly to the same thing. The Abbe Pluche of France, 
as well as he and Bp. Berkeley, agree that this ethereal fire 
is the light and life of the whole sensible world, and grand 
agent in all nature, or the immediate engine from whence 
all the phenomena mechanically derive : and that this was 
the original philosophy of Moses and in all tlie Hebrew 
Scriptures, and taught mankind from the beginning. And 
I am pleased in thinking that your demonstrations and 
Mr. Franklin's experiments illustrate and confirm it to be 
the only true and genuine philosophy. Pardon, Sir, my 
incoherent and rambling way of writing. I hope you may 
pick out my meaning. I would transcribe, but my care of 
your grandchildren and other duties will not admit of time 
for it. 

As to your grandchildren, I have the same notion of 
education with you (my plan you may see in my 6th chap- 
ter), and do not fail, as you desire, to inculcate those prin- 
ciples you mention as far as I am able. And besides the 
moral and classical part (in which they have almost finished 
" Cornelius Nepos " and two thirds of " Justin "), I have gone 
over and explained a short History of England and a short 
Geography you gave them, and am now going over a short 
system of Universal History and Chronology, and point 
out to them in maps the Ancient Geography of the Classics 
as well as the modern. But they have (the eldest espe- 
cially) such a violent impetuosity to their play that I find 
it exceeding difficult to gain so strong an attention as I 
could wish to their books and studies. They seem well 
cut out for business, as farming and merchandise, but Peter 
has an excellent turn for learning, and it is a pity but he 
should go through an entire course of education. As to 
what he wrote to you, I am exceeding glad his dispositions 
are such and that you approve of them, and agree with you 
and thank you for your remark of the vast importance 



188 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

to religion and the public weal tliat any of distinguished 
families should apply themselves to Diyinity. Mrs. De 
Lancey first mentioned it to me, and I ventured to encour- 
age it, and shall henceforward encourage myself to hope 
that your daughter has borne, and that I am educating one 
who, in God's time, may become a bishop in America. I 
communicated your letter to them and inculcated it. They 
send their humblest thanks and duty to you and their grand- 
mamma and uncles and aunts. They have had an uninter- 
rupted course of perfect health. 

I cannot take leave without giving you my humble thanks 
for the favor you have done me in the good character you 
gave of me in your account of Pokeweed, etc., which was 
published in the " Gentleman's Magazine," and wish I may 
deserve it. I have since heard of several others of the eat- 
ing cancers cured by it, but a man in this town has a strange 
sore on his legs they call a heaving or gnawing cancer, on 
which it was tried without success ; and both cutting, burn- 
ing, and several caustics have since been tried, which have 
only made it grow the faster, and it is now larger than the 
hand can cover, and is like to cost the poor man his life. 
I am, Sir, your most obliged humble servant, 

S. J. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 189 



CHAPTER Vin. 

PROPOSED COLLEGE AT NEAV YORK ; JOHNSON INVITED TO THE 
PRESIDENCY ; OBSTACLES TO A CHARTER, AND FINALLY 
GRANTED ; LETTERS TO PRESIDENT CLAP ; REMOVAL TO NEW 
YORK AND LECTURER IN TRINITY CHURCH ; HIS YOUNGER 
SON CHOSEN TUTOR IN KING'S COLLEGE; GOES TO ENGLAND 
FOR ORDINATION AND DIES THERE OF THE SMALL-POX. 

A. D. 1754-1756. 

The proposition to establish a College in New York 
was pursued with more vigor after the settlement of 
the Institution at Philadelphia. A few gentlemen, 
chiej&y members of the Church of England, were lead- 
ing spirits in the movement, and guided it so as to se- 
cure the erection of the College on the broad grounds 
of Christian liberality. It appears to have been the 
intention in the original endowment of Trinity Church, 
in the city of New York, to connect the promotion of 
learning with the interests of religion, and a lot of 
land in a favorable locality belonging to the Vestry 
was given for the use of the proposed College, upon 
condition, that the President thereof for the time be- 
ing should be in communion with the Church of Eng- 
land, and that the morning and evening service in the 
College should be the Liturgy of the Church, or such 
a collection of prayers out of the Liturgy as should be 
" agreed upon by the President or Trustees or Gov- 
ernors of the said College." This gift was accepted 
by the Commissioners empowered to receive propo- 
sals for the Trustees. 



190 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

The Trustees, who had been appointed by an act 
of the Colonial Legislature, consisted of " the eldest 
Councilor of the Province, the Speaker of the As- 
sembly, the Judges of the Supreme Court, the Mayor 
of the city of New York," ex officio (Churchmen), 
and one more Churchman, together with the Treas- 
urer of the Colony, and a " member of the Dutch 
Church, and one of the Presbyterian congregation." -^ 
The same act which fixed the appointment of Trus- 
tees, vested in them the sum of " three thousand four 
hundred and forty-three pounds, eighteen shillings, 
raised hy way of Lottery for erecting a College within 
the Colony ;" and by a supplementary act passed on 
the 4th of July^ 1753, the Treasurer of the Colony 
for the time being was enabled and directed to pay 
unto the Trustees out of " the moneys arising from 
the duty of excise, the annual sum of five hundred 
pounds, for and during the term of seven years, to 
commence from and after the first day of January 
next ensuing ; " this annuit}'' to be distributed by 
them in salaries to the officers of instruction. 

In pursuance of other powers granted by this act, 
the Trustees invited Dr. Johnson, who from its incep- 
tion had been consulted about perfecting the scheme 
^nd carrying it into execution, to become the Pres- 
ident, and to remove to New York and enter upon 
his duties without delay. The position was congen- 
ial to his tastes, for he loved learning and colleges ; 
but there were two great obstacles in the way of his 
acceptance. One was he had not had the small-pox, 
and in New York he would be much more exposed 

1 See a Brief Vindication of the Proceedings of the Trustees, etc., by an Impar- 
tial Hand, p. i. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 191 

to it than in Stratford ; and the other, which was 
perhaps the greater, was the consideration of his ad- 
vanced years. He was almost three-score, and on this 
account was less inclined to sunder the happy pas- 
toral relations which had subsisted between him and 
his people for the best part of his life. And then 
the social refinement, the bustle and stir, and de- 
mands upon his time of a city did not contrast pleas- 
antly in his mind with the studious retirement and 
quiet repose of a rural parsonage. But his friends in 
New York and the principal managers of the enter- 
prise assured him they would abandon it, and it would 
come to nothing if he declined the invitation. He 
finally consented to make a trial, but would not ab- 
solutely accept the office till the charter should be 
obtained, and he could see what sort of an institution 
he was to preside over. With this view he left Strat- 
ford on the 15th of April, 1754, but neither removed 
his family nor resigned his parish. The Vestry of 
Trinity Church unanimously chose him an Assistant 
Minister and voted him the sum of one hundred and 
fifty pounds per annum ; but he replied, " My ad- 
vanced years, verging towards the decline of life, are 
great matters of discouragement to me, and render 
me extremely fearful whether I shall be able to an- 
swer your expectations." -^ 

The design of the College underwent a violent 
struggle before Dr. Johnson arrived in New York. 
It was intended to be a common blessing to all de- 
nominations, with no other preference for the Church 
than that one of her communicants should be at the 
head; '-but Mr. W. Livingston, a virulent Presby- 

1 Berrian's Hist. Trinity Church, p. 106. 



192 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

terian, joined with other leading Presbyterians and 
Free-thinkers, violently opposed it, and raised a hide- 
ous clamor against it, and printed a paper of Twenty 
Reasons to disafFect the Assembly against granting 
the money raised by lotteries." ^ This paper was 
styled a Protest, and much was written and published 
in reply. Johnson himself dipped into the contro- 
versy, and even asked his elder son, who was then 
rising into eminence in the legal profession, to try 
his hand in an argument to demolish the Twenty 
Reasons and vindicate the proceedings of the Trus- 
tees. The opinion which he returned to his father 
should not be omitted from these pages : — 

I must add a word to what you say of an answer to the 
Protest. You know I am generally averse to disputes of 
this kind, as tending more to irritate the passions than to 
convince the understandings of the people. What is wrote 
in this way, is most generally read only by those persons 
who are before prepossessed on one side or other of the ques- 
tion. But especially averse am I towards engaging myseK 
in any controversial writings, as knowing myself to want 
both ability and leisure to perform anything as it should be. 
I never yet wrote anything but I was both sick and ashamed 
of it before it was half done. In regard to the present case, 
Mr. Wetmore on conference agrees with me that it is not, 
as we can see, worth while to write or publish any answer, 
most of what is here said having been already thrown out 
in the " Reflector," or consisting of such far fetched reasons 
and strained constructions of the act of Assembly and pur- 
port of the petition and charter, that they demonstrate the 
gentleman to be determined to oppose and find fault with 
everything that does not coincide exactly with his favorite 
scheme of absolute independency both in religion and gov- 
ernment. And when men are resolved to wrangle and find 

1 MS. Autobiography. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 193 

fault, what end is there in answering them ? But especially 
I imagine that of all persons, you nor I nor any of the family 
should be in the least concerned in any disputes with respect 
to the College. For those in the opposition to have it in their 
power once to suggest that you are at the head of a party, or 
promotmg any particular scheme, must be highly prejudi- 
cial, and will give them great strength in their endeavors to 
bias the Assembly. A very small matter in this way may 
be magnified and improved to the most pernicious purposes. 
Let us by all means at present stand perfectly neuter. If 
they, whose business it is, form a college whose model you 
approve, you can in this case accept the Presidentship with 
cheerfulness. If they do not, you can retreat with honor. 
Should I write anything, it would certainly be discovered by 
them, and must in these circumstances do vastly more hurt 
than in any case it would possibly do good. This I humbly 
suggest as my opinion in the matter. However, if an answer 
be finally thought necessary, Mr. Wetmore will doubtless 
be ready to write, and I have suggested to him, what has oc- 
curred to me in reading of it. The Protest I think goes upon 
a wrong supposition, namely, that the charter petitioned for 
is to establish a college without the approbation and almost 
independent of the Assembly or Legislature, to the support 
of which nevertheless the moneys granted by the two acts 
of Assembly are to be applied, contrary to the intentions and 
design of the Assembly m making the grant, which I take 
it is by no means aimed at by anybody, nor indeed I con- 
ceive can possibly be. The question I think truly is whether 
it be advisable for the Trustees to recommend or the Legis- 
lature to accept the generous offer of Trinity Church on the 
condition they give, or not. In this light nothing I think 
in the Protest can have any great weight. It would be 
plainly unreasonable for the Church to make the offer with- 
out the condition annexed. And Twenty reasons, I think, 
might be given why it would be advisable for the Legisla- 
ture to accept it on those terms. What is said about the 
establishment of the Church of England, and several other 

13 



194 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

things which are hinted at, are manifestly designed to raise 
a clamor and excite jealousies, as they have not even the 
remote resemblance of a reason pro or con. on any just or 
reasonable state of the question. However, let us by all 
means let them entirely alone. Let those whose proper busi- 
ness it is exert themselves. 'Tis enough for us to say, .... 
God speed ye. I know you will excuse my freedom, and 
am, honored Sir, 

Your obedient son and servt, 

Wm. Saml. JoHNsoiir. 

June 13th, 1754. 

In writing to him, June IT, 1754, the father said: 
" I very much commend your prudence ; but even 
caution, one of the best things in the world, may be 
carried too far as well as humility itself. We must 
have resolution to do good in spite of opposition, as 
well as discretion to direct it to the best purposes. 
As to the Protest, I hope there will be no occasion for 
you or me to answer it." He may have known at 
this time what was already contemplated, if not be- 
gun ; for " A Brief Vindication of the Proceedings of 
the Trustees relating to the College, containing a suf- 
ficient Answer to the late famous Protest, with its 
Twenty unanswerable Reasons," was written "by an 
Impartial Hand," — this hand representing Mr. Ben- 
jamin Nicoll, a son of Dr. Johnson's wife by her first 
husband. He was a lawyer of distinction in New 
York, one of the governors of the College, and " the 
life and soul of the whole afiair." While the contest 
was going on, Dr. Johnson published his plan of edu- 
cation, and appointed a day for examining and ad- 
mitting candidates. He commenced with a class of 
ten students, including two from other colleges, who 
met him for the first time on the 17th of July in 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 195 

the vestry-room of the school-house belonging to the 
Corporation of Trinity Church. He continued his 
instructions Avithout intermission till September 1st, 
when he was summoned to the sick-bed of his elder 
son, whom he had little expectation of finding alive, 
but who, after remaining a long time in a critical 
state, finally recovered. During his absence, which 
continued till November 10, the Royal Charter passed 
the seals, incorporating the Governors of King's 
College in New York ; and thus what had been the 
subject of such violent opposition became a fixed 
jDrovision of law. The time had now come for him 
to make a decision whether he would remain in 
Stratford or go to New York. The services of his 
Church had been conducted in his absence by his 
younger son, who was preparing for Holy Orders, 
and with the aid of the neighboring clergy he had 
managed to keep the people from much uneasiness 
during the protracted struggle for settling the ques- 
tion about a charter for the College. The following 
letter from the Rector of Trinity Church sums up the 
final contest, and puts before him the responsibility 
of resigning his pastoral charge, and entering upon 
the full duties of the Presidency : — 

Dear Sir, — Mr. NicoU being obliged to go out of town, 
communicated your letter to me in order that I might an- 
swer it. On Thursday last the Charter passed the Governor 
and Council, and was ordered to be forthwith engrossed. 
On Friday, the Trustees appointed by act of Assembly, ac- 
cording to order of the House, delivered in a report of their 
proceedmgs conformable to the act, which report was signed 
by all but Wilham Livingston, who objected to the report as 
not being complete, because no notice was taken of the pro- 



196 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

ceedings with regard to the Charter, which the Governor 
and the rest of the gentlemen thought unnecessary. Where- 
upon Livingston delivered in a separate report in full, con- 
tamilig his famous Protest, etc. This occasioned a great 
ferment in the House, and issued for that day in a resolve 
that Livingston's Report should be printed at large, and 
the affair postponed to farther consideration on Wednesday 
next. They had a majority of fourteen to eight, but three 
of our friends were absent, and it was with much difficulty 
that they were prevented from censuring the conduct of the 
Trustees and returning thanks to Livingston. We were all 
afraid that this would have retarded the Sealing of the Char- 
ter, and some well-wishers to the thing would have consented 
to the retarding of it, had not the Governor appeared reso- 
lute and come to town on Saturday and fixed the Seal to it ; 
and to do him justice, he has given us a good majority of 
Churchmen, no less than eleven of the Vestry being of the 
number. There are but eight of the Dutch Church, most of 
them good men and true, and two Dissenters. We are, how- 
ever, puzzled what to advise you as to resigning your mission. 
I have been with Mr. Chambers this morning, and though it 
be the opinion of most of the gentlemen that you ought to 
resign and trust to Providence for the issue of things and 
come away immediately, yet we would rather choose if pos- 
sible, that you should put off the resignation for a fortnight 
or three weeks, and come down immediately, because some 
are not so clear with regard to the ,£500 support, though 
others think we cannot be deprived of it. But since this 
conversation with Mr. Chambers we have had some ghm- 
mering light. I went from Mr. Chambers' to Mr. Watts' 
(who is unhappily confined with the rheumatism), and met 
two Dutch members coming out of his house, who, as he told 
me, came to make proposals for an accommodation, and all 
they desired was a Dutch Professor of Divinity, which, if 
granted, they would all join us, and give the money. This 
I doubt not will be done unless the Governor should oppose 
it, who is much incensed at the Dutch for petitioning the 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 197 

Assembly on that head, but I make no doubt but he may be 
pacified. 

Upon the whole, it is the opinion of all that you must 
come do^vn as soon as possible, and the advice of Mr. Cham- 
bers and myself, in which I believe Benny concm's, that you 
defer the resignation of your mission a little longer, as it will 
be a means of getting a good subscription for your support 
in case this accommodation with the Assembly should fail, 
which, however, I am inclined to think will not fail. In a 
word, it seems you have put your hand to the plow, and I 
know not how you can now look back. Providence, I trust, 
is still on our side, and everybody is solicitous for your re- 
turn. 

I am, dear Sir, in the greatest hurry. 
Yours, etc. 

Hen. Barclay. 

I have not time to give you a list of the Governors, nor 
indeed can I recollect them all. The whole number is forty- 
one : seventeen ex-officio and twenty-four private gentlemen, 
m which number there are at present but eight of the Dutch 
Church, the French, Lutheran, Presbyterian Ministers, and 
Will. Livingston, — so that we have a majority of twenty- 
nine to twelve, and in these twelve are included Mr. Rich- 
ards, John Cruger, Leonard Lispenard, and the Treasurer, 
all our good friends. 

Monday, 10 o'clock, Nov. 4, 1754. 

Dr. Johnson returned to New York to find the con- 
troversy about the College not yet closed. The op- 
position set their pens running to prevent the Assem- 
bly from granting any more favors ; but he did not 
heed them, and sent for some of his furniture and 
books, and wrote to his son Wm. Samuel, December 2, 
to say : " It is not doubted but the next session will 
give us the money to build. Meantime it is resolved to 
have a subscription to begin with, and doubtless money 



198 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

enough will be got twice told to build a President's 
house, which will begin early in the spring. And 
as to my security, the Trustees resolve to meet this 
week and confirm what they did before, nothing doubt- 
ing but the £500 per annum is in their power, and 
unalterably at their disposal for my support." By 
the advice of his friends, he was to lodge during the 
winter with his son, Mr. Benjamin Nicoll, with whom 
he appears to have previously made his home ; and the 
Vestry of Trinity Church voted to pay him the salary 
as usual, and " in consideration of his advanced years 
and the duties of the College," to require of him 
" only to read prayers on Sunday, and to preach one 
Sunday in a month at church and chapel," or as 
might be agreed upon by the Rector and occasion 
might demand. 

-His endeavors met with much embarrassment, and 
" nothing," he wrote again to his son after the Holi- 
days, " I assure you could have induced me to en- 
dure it, but the hopes of rendering the little remain- 
der of my life more useful to mankind, and especially 
in laying a foundation for sound learning and true 
religion in the rising and future generations." He 
worked vigorously on to bring things into shape and 
order, drew from the Liturgy a form for the daily 
prayers, composed the Collect for the College, and had 
them printed with the Psalter. It added to his anxi- 
ety that his flock in Stratford was without a shepherd. 
Both his sons acted as lay-readers, — the elder tak- 
ing his place after the younger had joined the father 
in New York to pursue his theological studies. Mr. 
Beach of Newtown had been thought of for his suc- 
cessor, and all would have welcomed him to the post, 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 199 

but he could not conscientiously leave his own church 
vacant. In a letter to his son Wm. Samuel, January 
20, 1755, Johnson said : " The melancholy condition 
of my poor destitute people is very affecting to me. 
I talked with Ogilvie and Chandler to no purpose ; 
nor do I think there is the least probability that Mr. 
Brown, or Mr. Seabury, Jun., would entertain the 
least thoughts of a removal, and since there is no 
hope of Stiles,^ I am sorry he should have had it in 
his power to make a merit of his refusal. I am 
very sorry Mr. Beach cannot be prevailed upon to 
remove ; and what course you can now take, I cannot 
conceive. Me thinks I should be for trying Mr. Lea- 
ming, with the utmost endeavor to get him for Strat- 
ford or Newtown. I confess from his talk to me, 
there seems little hope, yet it seems to me worth 
while to try. Who knows what may be done ? Can 
there be no thoughts of Sam. Brown for Newtown ? 
or is there no young man that would go for so valua- 
ble a parish ? It is certainly much preferable to any- 
thing the Dissenters can give. There was some talk 
once of one Street, of Wallingford. What has come 
of him ? " 

The establishment of a separate religious society 
and church in Yale College, at first unacceptable to 
many of the Congregationalists, and the adoption 
about this time of regulations which infringed upon 
the rights of Episcopal students, gave importance 
to the position of Dr. Johnson as the head of King's 
College. It was the fault of the times to take a nar- 
row view of Christian liberty ; but after a parish had 
been formed, a church built, and a Missionary of tha 

1 Ezra Stiles, afterwards President of Yale College. 



200 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel stationed in 
New Haven, it was expected and claimed that Episco- 
pal students should be allowed to prefer their own 
mode of worship on the Lord's day, and not subjected 
to a penalty for declining to attend those services in 
the College Chapel, designed to guard and perpetuate 
the Puritan faith. The two sons of the Missionary 
(Punderson) were not exempted from the^ rigor of 
the offensive statute. The separation and withdrawal 
of all students from the First Ecclesiastical Society, 
where with the ofl&cers of the College they had been 
hitherto accustomed and required to worship, and 
limiting them to the chapel, involved questions of 
internal orthodoxy; and the long and fierce con- 
tention which sprung up and affected to some extent 
the whole colony, was entirely outside the rights of 
Episcopalians, and only concerned them so far that it 
made them more desirous to keep their sons as much 
as possible under the teaching of the Church. 

President Clap defended the law in its full opera- 
tion, and undertook to show that it was " inconsistent 
with the original design of the founders,'' to grant 
special favors to Episcopal students. Johnson, who 
for many years had been on the most friendly terms 
with him, replied warmly to his statements, and in- 
sisted that the chief benefactors of the College and 
the proportionate share of Churchmen in its yearly 
support contemplated a common benefit, and forbid 
the supposition that the children of Episcopal parents 
should ever be required to " go out of their own 
houses to meeting, when there was a church at their 
doors." The following letter is an earnest vindication 
of his views : — 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 201 

Stratford, February 5, 1754. 

Rev. and dear Sir, — Tho' I am but in a poor condition 
for writing, I can't forbear a few lines in answer to yours of 
January 80th. 

I thank you for your kind congratulation on my being 
chosen President of their intended College at New York, 
and I shall desire by all means, if I undertake it, to hold a 
good correspondence not only as Colleges but as Christians, 
supposing you and the Fellows of your College act on the 
same equitable, catholic, and Christian principles as we 
unanimously propose to act upon, i. e., to admit that the chil- 
dren of the Church may go to church whenever they have 
opportunity, as we think of nothing but to admit that the 
children of dissenting parents have leave to go to their 
meetings ; nor can I see anything like an argument in all 
you have said to justify the forbidding it. And I am pro- 
digiously mistaken if you did not tell me it was an allowed 
and settled rule with you heretofore. 

The only point in question, as I humbly conceive, is, 
whether there ought of right to he any such law in your Col- 
lege as, either in ivords or by necessary consequence, forbids 
the liberty tve contend for ! What we must beg leave to in- 
sist on is, That there ought not ; and that it is highly injuri- 
ous to forbid it ; unless you can make it appear That you 
ever had a right to exclude the people of the Church belong- 
ing to this Colony, from having the benefit of Public educa- 
tion in your College, without their submitting to the hard con- 
dition of not being allowed to do tvhat they believe in their 
conscience it is their indispensable duty to do, i. e., to require 
their children to go to church ivhenever they have ojjportunity, 
and at the same time a right to accept and hold such vast ben- 
efactions from gentlemen of the Church of England, loherewith 
to support you in maintaining such a laiv in exclusion of such 
a liberty. Can you think those gentlemen would ever have 
given such benefactions to such a purpose ! And ought it not 
to be considered at the same time, that the parents of these 
children contribute also their proportion every year to the 
support of the College ? 



/ 



202 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Your argument in a former letter was, That it is incon- 
sistent with the original design of the founders, which was 
only to provide ministers for your churches. But pray, Sir, 
why may not our Chvirch also be provided for with ministers 
from one common College as well as your churches ? And 
ought not the catholic design of the principal benefactors 
also in strict justice to be regarded, who, in the sense of the 
English law, are to be reckoned among the founders ? See 
Viner, on the Title FouNDEES. What Mr. Yale's views ^ 
were, I had not opportunity of knowing, though, doubtless, 
they were the same that we suppose. But I was knowing 
to Bp. Berkeley's, which were, that his great Donation 
should be equally for a common benefit, without respect to 
parties. For I was myself the principal, I may say in effect 
the only person in procuring that Donation, and with those 
generous, catholic, and charitable views ; though you (not 
willing, it seems, that Posterity should ever know this) did 
not think fit to do me the justice in the History of the Col- 
lege (though humbly suggested), as to give me the credit 
of any, the least influence on him in that affair ; when the 
truth is, had it not been for my influence it would never 
have been done, to which I was prompted by the sincere 
desire that it should be for a common benefit, when I could 
have easily procured it appropriated to the Church. But 
at that time Mr. Williams also pretended a mighty catholic 
charitable conviction that there never was any meaning in 

1 Jeremiah Dummer, agent of the Colony of Connecticut, writing to Gov. Sal- 
tonstall, from " Middle Temple [London], 14th April, 1719," says : " I heartily con- 
gratulate you upon the happy union of the Colony, in fixing the Colledge at New 
Haven, after some differences which might have been attended with ill conse- 
quences. Mr. Yale is very much rejoyc'd at this good news, and more than a little 
pleas'd with his being the Patron of such a seat of the Muses. Saving that he ex- 
press't at tirst some kind of concern, whether it was well in him, being a Church- 
man, to promote an Academy of Dissenters. But when we had discours't that 
point freely, he appear'd convinc't that the business of good men is to spread relig- 
ion and learning among mankind without being too fondly attach't to particLdar 
Tenets, about which the world never was, nor never will be, agreed. Besides, if the 
Discipline of the Church of England be most agreeable to Scripture and primitive 
practice, there's no better way to make men sensible of it than by giving them good 
learning." — State Library, Hartford. Extract from Document 110 oj" vol. ii. 
"Foreign Correspondence with Colonial Agents, 1661-1732." 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 203 

it ; it being at the very same juncture that he, with the 
Hampshire ministers, his father at the head of them, were, 
in their great charity, contriving a letter to the Bishop oj 
London by means of which they hoped to deprive all the 
Church people in these parts of their ministers, and them of 
their support ; the same charitable aim that Mr. Hohart ^ 
and his friends are pursuing at this day ! And now you. 
Gentlemen, are so severe as to establish a law to deprive us 
of the benefit of a public education for our children too, un- 
less we will let them, nay require them, to go out of our 
own houses to meeting, when there is a church at our doors. 
Indeed, Sir, I must say this appears to me so very inju- 
rious, that I must think it my duty, in obedience to a rule 
of the Society, to join with my Brethren in complaining of 
it to our superiors at home, if it be insisted upon, — which is 
what I abhor and dread to be brought to ; and, therefore, 
by the love of our dear country (in which we desire to live, 
only upon a par Avith you, in all Christian charity), I do 
beseech you, Gentlemen, not to insist upon it. Tell it not in 
Gatli! much less in the ears of our dear mother-country, 
that any of her daughters should deny any of her children 
leave to attend on her worship whenever they have oppor- 
tunity for it. Surely you cannot pretend that you are con- 
science-bound to make such a law, or that it would be an 
infraction of liberty of conscieyice for it to be repealed from 
home, as you .intimate. This would be carrjdng matters far 
indeed. But for God's sake do not be so severe to think in 
this manner, or to carry things to this pass ! If so, let Dis- 
senters never more complain of their heretofore persecutions 
or hardships in England, unless they have us tempted to 
think it their principle, that they only ought to be tolerated, 
in order at length to be established, that they may have tlie 
sole privilege of persecuting others. But I beg pardon and 
forbear ; only I desire it may be considered, how ill such a 
principle would sound at this time of day, when the univer- 

1 Noah Hobart, a Congregational minister at Fairfield, who published two Addresses 
to Members of the Episcopal Separation in New England. He died 1773. 



204 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

sal Church of England as much abhors the persecution of 
Dissenters as they can themselves. It may also deserve to 
be considered that the Government at home would probably 
be so far from going into the formality of repealing this law 
that they would declare it, a nullity in itself ; and not only 
so, but even the corporation that hath enacted it ; inasmuch 
as it seems a principle in law that a corporation cannot make 
a corporation^ nor can one be made without his Majesty's act. 
See Finer, under the titles, Corpoeation and I^y-laws. 

You mistake me, Sir. I did not say that Professors of 
Divinity do not preach. I knew they and the Heads, etc., 
do preach in their turns at the common church, to which all 
resort to sermon. But what I say is, that they do not 
preach as Professors, nor do they ever preach in private 
Colleges, there being no such thing as preaching in the Col- 
lege chapels, but only at St. Mary's and Christ Church, 
which are in effect cathedrals, where the scholars resort, but 
not exclusive of the town's people, tho' they generally go to 
their parish churches. 

I wonder how you came to apprehend I had any scruples 
about the divinity of Christ. I am with you, glad we agree 
so far ; and I would desire you to understand, that my zeal 
for that sacred Depositum, the Christian faith, founded on 
those principles, — a coessential, coeternal Trinity, and the 
Divinity, incarnation, and satisfaction of Christ, — is the very 
and sole reason of my zeal for the Church of England, and 
that she may be promoted, supported, and well treated in 
these countries ; as I have been long persuaded that she is, 
and will eventually be found, the only stable bulwark against 
all heresy and infidelity which are coming in like a flood 
upon us, and this, as I apprehend, by reason of the rigid 
Calvinism, Antinomianism, enthusiasm, divisions, and sep- 
arations, which, through the weakness and great imperfec- 
tion of your constitution (if it may so be called), are so rife 
and rampant among us. My apprehension of this was the 
first occasion of my conforming to the Church (which has 
been to my great comfort and satisfaction), and hath been 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 205 

more and more confirmed by what has occurred ever since. 
And I am still apt to think that no well-meaning Dove that 
has proper means and opportunity of exact consideration, 
will ever find rest to the sole of his foot amid such a deluge, 
till he comes into the Church as the alone ark of safety, — 
all whose Articles, Liturgy, and Homilies taken together and 
explained by one another, and by the writings of our first 
Reformers, according to their original sense, shall ever be 
sacred with me ; which sense, as I appehend it, is neither 
Calvinistical nor Arminian, but the golden mean, and accord- 
ing to the genuine meaning of the Holy Scriptures in the 
original, critically considered and understood. I beg pardon 
for this length, which I did not design at first, and desire 
you will also excuse my haste, inaccuracy, and this writing 
currente calamo, and conclude with earnestly begging that 
neither your insisting on this law nor anything else, may oc- 
-^ur to destroy or interrupt our harmony and friendship, with 
svliich, on my part I desire ever to remain, dear Sir, 
Your real friend and humble servant, 

S. Johnson. 

P. S. — I wish you to communicate it to the Fellows. 

Another letter from President Clap received his at- 
tention Avlien he was on the eve of departing for New 
York. The issue was made in the case of the sons of 
the Missionary, and here the first relaxation of the 
law began. For Dr. Johnson '^s son William wrote 
him from Stratford a few months later : " I don't 
hear any talk of printing against the President ; am 
told he has given up the point with Mr. Punderson's 
sons." He could not well do otherwise after the fol- 
lowing letter, dated : — 

Stratford, February 19, 1754. 
Dear Sir, — My unsettled condition in view of my re- 
moving to New York, must be my apology for not being 
more particular in answer to yours of the 10th. 



206 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

If there was not good reason offered to support my 
warmth you might justly fault it, but I must think it was 
supported with abundant reasons which you have nothing 
like answered. I am sure the Dissenters in England had 
never half so much reason to excuse their many pathetic 
declamations. You would have us, it seems, be deprived of 
our birthright as Englishmen, and at the same time be per- 
fectly calm and easy under it. Truly, Sir, I must think it 
sufficient to raise our passions to be denied a pubhc education 
for our children, unless we will in direct violation of our con- 
sciences enjoin them to go to dissenting meeting when we 
have a church at our doors. 

I have always been very tender of the charter privileges of 
this Government, and ever advised our Church people to be 
easy, and do all they could to promote the public peace and 
weal as things stand ; but by your proceedings you seem re- 
solved to provoke us to be enemies to the Government, when 
we are content to be only upon a par with our neighbors, and 
to live in entire love and peace with them in a cheerful sub- 
mission to the Government. I am surprised at your Politics 
in this way of proceeding with us, supposing the injustice 
and uncharitableness of it were out of the question. How- 
ever, since you are resolved (being, as you say, in possession') 
to go on in your own way, you must even proceed ; but I am 
very much mistaken if you do not eventually prove your own 
greatest enemies. 

It is strange to me that merely opening a church at New 
Haven should be considered by any of you, gentlemen, as a 
justifiable provocation to interrupt the harmony that had 
subsisted between us, when we do not aim at disturbing you, 
but only at judging and acting for ourselves. Indeed I own 
I have never been very zealous and active in the affair, but 
rather hung back, as I apprehended danger of some gentle- 
men's making disturbance on such an occasion ; but I do not 
remember that I told you I was with you — of the mind it 
would not be for the public good to have a church there, as 
you state it. However, when I saw what loose principles 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 207 

were obtaining among you and the confused state you were 
in, I thought it might be much conducive to the public good 
to have a church there, especially after such a virulent and 
abusive spirit as Mr. Hobart thought fit to raise against the 
Church, to whose pious labors I suppose it was chiefly owing 
that the Society fixed a mission and Mr. Punderson there. 

If there had been such a general law before, as you say, 
yet this I very well remember, that you told me you had 
made certain Rules under the name of Customs^ which I un- 
derstood to be written and agreed to by the Fellows ; one of 
which was that the children of the Church, their parents so 
desiring, should have free liberty to go to church whenever 
they had opportunity, or to this effect. 

I may be, perhaps, mistaken in saying there is never 
preaching in any of the College chapels. There may be 
those two or three exceptions you mention ; my copy of the 
Oxford Laws was and is at New York ; so that I could not 
turn to those paragraphs you cited ; but surely you cannot 
think them anything to your purpose of holding constant 
meeting only in your Hall,^ and requiring the Church chil- 
dren to attend them when they have a church to go to, and 
their parents order their attendance there ! 

If, indeed, you are an independent Society or Government, 
or the Charter had given you such unlimited and uncontrol- 
lable powers, I own there would have been something plausi- 
ble in your reasoning ; but then it would equally conclude 
against any toleration of the Dissenters in England, and 
consequently must now be interpreted to be contrary to law, 
and as far as in you lies to aim at a subversion of the present 
English Constitution. 

I much wonder you cannot understand my stating of the 
case. I cannot conceive of any words that could make it 
more intelligible. If, indeed, with Hohhes^ etc., you thought 
poioer to do anything would give a right to it, then your ar- 
gument ivova. possession is just ; but I trust that is not your 

1 Public worship was established in the College Hall preparatory to the erection of 
a chapel. 



208 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

tenet. The question then is, 1st. Whether it be right in 
itself for any Society, however voluntary or independent, to 
require as a condition of enjoying the privileges of it (and 
especially so great a privilege as that of a public education')^ 
that any person that is free of that Society, or horn in it^ 
should he obliged to act contrary to his conscience, or to what 
he is really persuaded is his duty in matters of religion, sup- 
posing that his religious principles he not in their nature sub- 
versive of the State ? And then, 2dly. Supposing this could 
be resolved in the affirmative, WJiether your Charter has 
given this government such a right, or a right to erect any 
Corporation tvith such a right or power as to insist on such a 
condition; or indeed could do it consistent ivith the English 
Constitution f I trow not. And it is plain to me, that un- 
less you prove the affirmative of both these questions, which 
you don't attempt, you really do nothing to the purpose. 
But I humbly conceive it is most proper to have these ques- 
tions canvassed before our Assembly here, before we trouble 
our Superior at home. 

But in truth the College is ours in proportion as really as 
yours, and you can no more be bound to pursue the inten- 
tion of the founders in your sense, exclusive of the Church, 
than Oxford was to continvie their Colleges appropriated to 
the Roman Catholics, if so much ; I mean in point of equity. 
There may be some small inconveniences in granting such a 
liberty, but they are not to be compared with the inconven- 
iences which will attend denying it. 

If what was mentioned was no designed omission in the 
first draught of your History, yet it seems to have been de- 
signedly persisted in after v^hat I humbly suggested to you. 
Indeed, Sir, your College never had a more hearty friend, 
without respect to any party, than I was and desire still to 
continue, if we can only stand upon an equal foot, but I am 
really and tenderly hurt by this disputed prohibition. It is 
hard, very hard indeed, if in an English colony the Church 
must be treated upon the same foot with every idle sectary. 
But I am insensibly got much further than I intended. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 209 

However, if I can find leisure to answer your state of the 
case and reasoning upon it more particularly, which I think 
may be easily done, and with as much calmness as you can 
desire, you may expect to hear further from me. Mean- 
time, I remain, dear Sir, 

Your friend and humble servant, 

S. Johnson. 

His time and thoughts were so much absorbed in 
the controversy about the College in New York, that 
he does not appear to have answered President Clap, 
as he intimated. He and his friends were deter- 
mined to construct it on a liberal basis ; but there 
was as much opposition among Presbyterians to allow- 
ing Episcopalians to dominate therein, as there was 
among the authorities of Yale College to giving the 
children of the Church the privilege of worshipping 
on Sundays in their own sanctuary. His son William 
wrote him, August 2, 1754, and in the course of his 
letter said : " We had yesterday a visit from President 
Clap ; I suppose on his return from advising with his 
brother Hohart. He was very inquisitive about your 
College, and wanted much to see your ' Oxonia Illus- 
trata,' which I handed to him. He pored upon it a 
considerable time, and at length said : ' Really, I think 
it seems to agree very well with a pretty long His- 
tory (I forget the author's name) that I have lately 
been reading, which I sent for from Cambridge Li- 
brary.' He said not a word about the controversy, 
though I believe he does not intend to give it over, 
by his studying the History of Oxford so much." 

Dr. Johnson finally resigned the Mission of Strat- 
ford,^ which he had held thirty- two years, and settled 

1 The Rev. Edward Winslow was appointed his successor, May 2, 1755. 
14 



210 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

with his family in New York, where he devoted him- 
self to the duties of the College at the same time 
that he fulfilled the office of a lecturer in Trinity 
Church. When he came to admit a second class, he 
needed some assistance, and as Mr. Whittelsey, who 
had previously been chosen Tutor, was prevented by 
the failure of his health from accepting the appoint- 
ment, the Trustees gave the place to the younger 
son of Dr. Johnson. The internal affairs of the Col- 
lege were now prosperous, and liberal subscriptions 
and benefactions were obtained to further its interests. 
But the war without was unended. The Presbyterian 
faction went on with its clamor, and expected to find 
in Sir Charles Hardy, the new Governor of the Prov- 
ince, a sympathizing friend, and prepared an inflam- 
matory address, against his arrival, to disaffect him 
towards the College. But it was received with cold- 
ness, while the address of the Governors or Trustees 
delivered by the President, was listened to " with the 
utmost complaisance ; " and signifying his desire to 
see the subscription paper, it was taken to him the 
next day, when the Governor " immediately took his 
pen and subscribed <£500. All this," says Johnson in 
his autobiography, " was such a mortification to the 
faction, that from this time forward they shut their 
mouths, and the College met with no more opposition. 
And in a little time it was agreed, for peace' sake, 
with the Assembly, to divide the money equally be- 
tween the College and the public." This was the 
money raised by lottery. 

His younger son had completed his theological 
studies, and resigning his tutorship, embarked for 
England for Holy Orders, Nov. 8, 1755, with a view 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 211 

to assist and succeed the venerable Mr. Standard at 
West Chester. It was a painful thing for the father 
to part with him. He wrote his other son shortly be- 
fore the decision : " Your brother can never go with 
better advantage than now, so that it is doubtless best 
he should now go. But I tremble at the thoughts 
of the difficulties and dangers to which he must be 
exposed, and pray God I may live to see him safe 
returned again, and could then cheerfully sing my 
nwiG dimittis." 

He had already acquainted the Venerable Society 
with the foundation of the College and his own elec- 
tion to the Presidency ; and Sherlock, the Bishop of 
London, had written him a letter of congratulation in 
view of the good service which this Institution might 
do for the Church of England in the Northern Colo- 
nies. But the Vestry of Trinity Church took occa- 
sion to write to the Rev. Dr. Bearcroft, Secretary of 
the Society, and appeal directly for sympathy and aid 
in behalf of the new enterprise. ' The letter thus 
written was intrusted to the care of Mr. Georg-e Har- 
ison, one of their number, and Mr. William Johnson, 
and after speaking of the opposers, it went on to say 
of the friends of the College : — 

They have begmi a subscription amongst themselves, and 
are daily purchasing materials to lay the foundation of a 
handsome, convenient edifice, which, God willing, they pur- 
pose to begin next spring ; and they are induced to hope, 
that as the dissenting Seminary in New Jersey has had the 
General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland engaged in its 
behalf last year, as well as the dissenting interest in Eng- 
land, and, as we are informed, have collected a very consid- 
erable sum of money, so our brethren in England will be 



212 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

ready to contribute to preserve the Church in this part of 
the world from the contempt its enemies are endeavoring to 
bring upon it. 

The Dissenters have already three seminaries in the 
Northern Governments. They hold their synods, presbyte- 
ries, and associations, and exercise the whole of their ecclesi- 
astical government to the no small advantage of their cause ; 
whilst those churches which are branches of the National 
Establishment are deprived not only of the benefit of a reg- 
ular church government, but their children are debarred the 
privilege of a liberal education, unless they will submit to 
accept of it on such conditions as Dissenters require ; which, 
in Yale College, is to submit to a fine as often as they at- 
tend public worship in the Church of England, communi- 
cants only excepted, and that only on Christmas and sacra- 
ment days. This we cannot but look upon as hard meas- 
ure, especially as we can with good conscience declare that 
we are so far from that bigotry and narrowness of spirit they 
have of late been pleased to charge us with, that we would 
not, were it in our power, lay the least restraint on any 
man's conscience, and should heartily rejoice to continue in 
brotherly love and charity with all our Protestant brethren." ^ 

Four months elapsed and no intelligence had been 
received by Dr. Johnson of the arrival of his son in 
England. He reached his destination, however, after 
an extremely perilous voyage, a week before Christ- 
mas, and landing at Deal, proceeded to Canterbury, 
where of all the clergy who befriended the father and 
his companions thirty-three years before, Mr. Gosling 
alone survived to welcome the son and give him hos- 
pitality. But on arriving in London, the seat of the 
Society's operations, he found several of his father's 
old friends and correspondents, and writing to him 
January 10th, he expressed some disappointment that 

1 Berrian's History Trinity Church, p. 103- 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 213 

his application to be ordained for West Chester was 
heard with so Uttle favor. He had called on Dr. 
Bearcroft, Christmas Eve, who received him rather 
coldly ; and again he had waited on him ten days 
later, when he was more kind, and " talked very 
freely of Dr. McSparran and his ambitious views ; of 
Fowle and Norwalk, Mr. Gibbs,^ the state of the 
Church throughout New England ; of the hasty rec- 
ommendations of young gentlemen for orders from 
America, and their being sent many times very raw, 
without first obtaining leave to come, etc. ; but always 
mentioned you with a great deal of kindness and re- 
spect. He said the Society did not intend to maintain 
assistants abroad, and that the sending me as curate 
to Mr. Standard would be a bad precedent for others 
to ask the same favors. I urged the infirmities of the 
old Doctor, and the miserable condition of the Church 
there as well as in many parts of the County." He 
was assured that if the Society thought proper to 
grant the request, much missionary duty would be 
done outside of the parish. 

Mr. Berriman and Dr. Astry received him cordially 
and promised him all the assistance in their power, but 
both regretted that he and Mr. Samuel Fayerweather,^ 
who arrived in London a week after Mr. Johnson, 
" were come upon such a slender basis." Further on 
in this same letter, he says : — 

1 Rev. Wm. Gibbs, of Simsbury, Ct, then in poor health. 

2 He was a native of Boston, and graduated at Harvard College, 1743. He was 
for several years settled as a Congregational minister in Newport, R. I., but after 
conforming to the Church of England, and receiving Holy Orders therein, he was ap- 
pointed a missionarj' in South Carolina. The climate impaired his health, and peti- 
tioning the Society to be removed North, he was transferred in 1760 to St. Paul's 
Church, Narragansett, vacant by the death of Dr. McSparran, in 1757. Mr. Fayer- 
vreather died in 1781. 



214 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE ' 

Last Tuesday, witli Fayerweatlier, waited on his Lordship 
of London at Fulham. He appeared very kind ; he seemed 
desirous to converse with us, but it was very difficult to un- 
derstand him : his voice is ahnost gone, but his understanding 
yet very good. He spoke at first pretty roughly to Fayer- 
weather, and said his bond from Taunton people was good for 
nothing ; they meant only to impose upon him. He had, he 
said, known instances of it from other places, and Taunton 
he knew never intended to pay what they promised him. At 
our coming away he asked whether I should write soon, and 
bid me give his services to you and tell you that writing was 
grown very difficult to him, and his infirmities such that he 
could scarce hold a pen in his hand to write his name, which 
was the reason you had no letter from him for some time. 
He then told us we must wait upon Dr. Nicholls next 
week, who does all his business for him, and thus we are 
referred to another tribunal. They all seem to agree (and 
especially the Secretary) that Taunton must not be made 
a mission. Poor Fayerweatlier is frighted out of his wits 
about it. However, I endeavor to encourage him to hope 
that all things will turn out right for us both, by and by. 

The good Bishop of Oxford I have waited on twice. He 
truly deserves Pope's character — Seeker is decent. He con- 
verses with me with all the familiarity of an intimate friend, 
promises to write for me to Oxford, and hopes a degree may 
be obtained. I heard him preach on Christmas Day at the 
Cathedral (the congregation was in tears), and received the 
Sacrament at his hands. There is to be a meeting of the 
Society next Friday, at which he promises to attend, and I 
am to be there myself and urge my cause. The Committee 
meet on Monday to prepare matters ready. Thus you see 
I am at present lying at the pool, and waiting for the mov- 
ing of the waters, in hopes some good friend will then take 
me up and cast me in, so that in my next I hope I shall be 
able to give you a more agreeable account of a favorable 
turn to my affairs. Meantime I shall endeavor to possess 
myself in patience and wait the event. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 215 

He seized every opportunity to communicate with 
his father, and keep him informed of the progress of 
his affairs. He knew his anxieties about him, and 
would do what he could to quiet them, and gladden 
the hearts of all his friends at home. His letters, in- 
tended for the family eye, do not fail to mention any 
change of plan or new proposition, though he was so 
far away that it must be carried into effect before he 
could have the parental advice. He left himself in 
the hands of Providence and his London counselors, 
and wrote as follows to his father : — 

London, February 6, 1756. 

Honored Sir, — I am told this morning, with the greatest 
secrecy, of an opportunity to New York, but who it is that is 
going, I know not ; however, 'tis satisfaction enough for me 
that I can inform you with what pleasure I received yours 
by the Grace via Bristol. There is no happiness here equal 
to that of hearing that you all continue well, as blessed be 
God, I am at present. You mention in this letter that you 
had wrote a few days before, I suppose b}' the Albany^ but 
she is not yet arrived, and we begin to be anxious for fear 
the French have got her. I am sorry to hear of Mr. Col- 
gan's death ; neither do I know what to say about succeed- 
ing there. 1 I have just mentioned it to Dr. Nicholls and 
Dr. Astry, and they both seemed rather to discourage me 
from thinking of it, as there must be a lawsuit, and perhaps 
a good deal of trouble to get things quietly settled ; how- 
ever, if I should hear nothing further from you about it, I 
shall endeavor to get leave of the Society to succeed there, 
if they should choose me upon my return, and all things con- 
sidered, it be thought most advisable. 

I wrote you a long letter by the Creneral Wall Paquet 
for New York, which hope you will receive. Since that I 
have waited on his Grace of Canterbury, who received me in 

1 Jamaica, L. I. 



216 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

a very familiar manner and inquired much about the College 
at New York, and the affairs of religion there. I was sur- 
prised to find by him that he had never yet seen a charter, 
or received any proper account of his being a Governor of 
the College. I suppose it was left with our late Governor, 
De Lancey, to write and send a charter to him, but you 
know his indolence, and therefore 'tis not strange it never 
was done. 

As to my own affairs, I can inform you nothing certain. I 
have waited upon the Committee at the Charter House, and 
afterwards was introduced to the Venerable Board at Abp. 
Tenison's Library. His Grace of York sat in the chair. On 
his right hand, the Bp. of Oxford, and three other Bishops. 
On his left, a very grand assembly ! Your letters were read, 
and that from the Vestry, publicly before the Board ; Mr. 
Harison was asked by the Bp. of Oxford to be present, and 
accordingly when we were introduced, we were questioned 
by his Grace and the B]d. of Oxford publicly about the Col- 
lege and the opposition it had met, and was like to meet with 
from the Dissenters, etc., to all which we answered in the 
best manner we could. I was then desired by Dr. Bear- 
croft to tell his Grace and the Bishops the story of our 
persecutions at Yale College, and in particular that of our 
going to hear Mr. Morris preach in the jail at New Haven 
(which I had told the Committee before) ; and they all 
heard it with much attention, and seemed disposed to patron- 
ize the College at New York. Mr. Harison, by your letters 
and Dr. Astry's recommendation, was mentioned at the 
Board for a member of the Society. I have myself taken a 
good deal of pains among the members, to have him made 
one, and Dr. Nicholls assures me it will be done at the next 
meeting. Mr. Fayerweather and myself are recommended 
by the Society to the Bp. of London for orders, and have 
leave afterwards to apply to them for their favor, which I 
suppose will be near X20 for me, an annual present, but not 
a settled salary as Dr. Nicholls thinks. Mr. Fayerweather 
I know not how they will dispose of, perhaps to Norwalk, 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 217 

for the Secretary tells me they must dismiss poor Fowle. 
I expect Dr. Nicholls will examine us next week, and we 
shall be ordained (if found worthy) in the Ember Week in 
March. 'Tis this day the general Fast, and I had engaged 
myself to wait on some company to Westminster Abbey to 
hear the sermon before the House of Lords, before I knew 
of the opportunity for writing. 

I trust in God for his protection and blessing upon us all, 
and hope we shall have a happy meeting again. Meantime, 
I remain, Honored Sir, 

Your most dutiful and obedient son, 

W. Johnson. 

The examination referred to in the foregoing letter 
was held, and he wrote his father on the 19th of 
March, to inform him that he and Mr. Fayerweather 
and several other candidates were ordained Deacons 
the previous Sunday by the Bishop of Bangor, Dr. 
Pierce, in the Chapel of the Palace at Fulham, — Dr. 
Sherlock, the Bishop of London, being too infirm to 
go through the ordination. Dr. Nicholls, Master of 
the Temple, presented them, and " after the service," 
he added, " we had a very grand and elegant dinner 
served up. The Bishop of London's lady, my Lord 
of Bangor, Dr. Nicholls, etc., sat at the table with us. 
The particular notice with which I was treated above 
the rest of my fellow-candidates had almost put me 
to the blush several times. My Lord of London de- 
sired to be affectionately remembered to you. He 
expresses a very great regard for you, and on your 
account treats me with the greatest kindness, and in- 
tends (as I am told by Dr. Nicholls), as soon as ever 
he can hear from Boston whether or not Dr. Mc- 
Sparran accepts the Chaplaincy, which Mr. Brockwell 



218 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

held, to give me the refusal of it, as he does not much 
expect the Dr. will think best to have it. If it should 
be offered me I shall be at a loss how to act, as I shall 
be unwilling to refuse, and unworthy to accept it." 

He wrote again on the 31st, and said : "I have 
now the satisfaction to acquaint you that Mr. Fayer- 
weather, myself, and two others were ordained Priests 
on Lady Day, at the Bishop of London's palace 
again, by the Bishop of Carlisle, Dr. Osbaldistone." 
Three days later he had another opportunity to write 
his father, when he mentioned : " I forgot in my 
last to tell you that my good friend, Mr. Cutler, had 
been in London almost a week, and took much no- 
tice of me. He came from Becking, forty miles, al- 
most on purpose to see us, and would have me with 
him every day, and visit all his friends with him here 
in London. He is hearty and lusty, a very true pic- 
ture of his father ; only more merry. When he went 
away he made me and Mr. Fayerweather promise to 
preach for him at Becking in our journey to Cam- 
bridge. He particularly desired to be affectionately 
remembered to you, but says he believes he shall 
never be tempted to see America again." 

Young Johnson still tarried in London, and had not 
left its precincts since his arrival, to visit other parts 
of the kingdom. He preached with good acceptance 
in several churches of the metropolis, and then com- 
municated to his brother his final plans in the fol- 
lowing letter. His ordination had not fixed his post 
in America, and the hesitancy or uncertainty about 
this occasioned him some anxiety : — 

Dear Brother, — I have yet received but one letter 
from you and that above a month ago, to which I gave you 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 219 

an answer by Captain Jacobson, in the Irene, by whom also 
I sent yon a box of books, marked W. S. J., No. 2, which I 
hope will come safe to you. I have still the pleasure of ac- 
quainting you of the continuation of my health (blessed be 
God), as 1 hope you all have ; but am quite weary of the smoke 
of London, which I propose on PYiday next to change for 
that of Windsor, and Oxford, where I was about ten days 
since honored with a degree of Master of Arts, and through 
my intercession with the good Bishop of Oxford, had Mr. 
Fayerweather joined with me, so that we have been now 
sounding in the newspapers almost a week, till I am quite 
weary of the compliments. Messrs. Harison and Fayer- 
weather will accompany me to the University where we pro- 
pose to spend about eight days, and then go to Cambridge 
and Becking to see Mr. Cutler, etc. After which I shall 
return to London again, and begin to settle my affairs here 
that I may turn my attention to America again, and the 
pleasing hopes of seeing you in health and peace once more. 

I don't know whether I told you that my Lord of London 
designs me the Chaplaincy at Boston, if Dr. McSparran re- 
fuses it, as 'tis expected he will; his own being better, and 
the Bishop won't let him hold both as the Dr. intended, and 
my Lord is now waiting his answer that he may give it to 
me, so that I am, at present, in a quandary whether Boston, 
West Chester, or Jamaica, will finally be my place of abode, 
though I can't but rather wish one of the latter, and that I 
may be the nearer to Daddy in his decline of life, as well as 
to you, though Boston be in itself the most eligible other- 
wise, as well as most honorable. 

Be so good as to make my compliments to Mr. Winslow, 
and tell hira his acquaintances here are well, particularly Mr. 
Bromfield and Jackson. I have had several agreeable little 
rides with Mr. Jackson into the country about London, as 
Mr. Winslow cai;i tell you he did before me. He dislikes 
the grounds and rudiments of law, etc., that you mentioned, 
but advises me to get you Peere Williams' Reports, a cele- 
brated thing, just published, in 3 vols, folio, price £4 lOs 



220 LIFE AND CORKESPONDENCE 

But as it is so costly I am a little at a loss what to do. Mr. 
Jackson offers to do you any little service that shall come in 
his way, and is obliged to you for the little memorandum you 
gave me about his land, which I showed to him. His Grace 
of Canterbury has been very ill, so that his life has been de- 
spaired of, but is now better, though 'tis thought he will not 
live long, as he is imagined to be in a consumption. I am to- 
morrow to attend at the grand rehearsal for the Sons of the 
Clergy at St. Paul's, and after sermon to be at the great feast 
with the stewards, gentry, etc. I have nothing particular to 
inform you as to public affairs. 'Tis neither peace nor war 
here ; our eyes 9,re fixed upon America, and I hope you will 
do worthily. I shall add no more, but my most affectionate 
love to sister, and hearty service to all friends as though 
named, and that 

I am your most affectionate brother and friend, 

W. Johnson. 

London, May 5, 1756. 

A letter to his father, twenty days later, describing 
the reception at Oxford, was the last which he Avrote 
to his friends in America. The journey to see Mr. 
Cutler at Becking does not appear to have been made, 
for the visit to Cambridge was cut short by his illness 
and speedy return to London. What happened to him 
after this is best detailed in the following pathetic 
letter, conveying the tidings of his death : — 

London, June 24, 1756. 

Dear and ever Honored Sir, — The occasion of my 
writing to you is melancholy and distressing. But O how 
can I speak it — my heart is pained within me, my spirit is 
troubled for you. The sovereign God has made a great 
breach in your family. Your beloved son William is dead — 
is dead. 

It pleased God, after a short illness of about nine days 
with the small-pox, to take him out of this world. The task 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON". 221 

in sencliiig such a letter of condolence to one of the best and 
tenderest of parents is exceeding irksome and disagreeable to 
me. But the duty I owe to Doctor Johnson, as well as the 
particular regard I had for his amiable son, ^yill not allow me 
to refrain. And while I thus drop a tear with you over my 
departed friend, wouldn't be forgetful of what Christianity 
forbids, " to mourn as those who are without hope." 

And though you, Rev. Sir, may say in the midst of your 
distress and sorrow, — " O William, my son, that I had 
died for thee — William, my son, my son," yet you have 
all the reason imaginable to be greatly comforted in his death, 
and even to rejoice because he is gone to his heavenly Father. 
Certain I am that you will be better able to make suita- 
ble reflections on such a providence, and improve it to your 
soul's comfort through the gracious assistance of the Divine 
Spirit than I can direct to. However, as it may be some 
satisfaction to you to know the particulars of his death, I 
will just put down some of the circumstances of it. 

Your son and I who were as one, united in the bonds of 
natural love and affection, and engaged in one and the same 
cause, were as often together as our circumstances would allow 
of (which was almost every day). And as we had one in- 
terest to serve, and recommended to the same gentlemen, 
we in all respects fared alike, and had the same honors to be 
unitedly thankful for. This leads me to observe that your 
letters (and Doctor Cutler's which I procured in behalf of 
us both) to the Bishop of Oxford introduced us to his ac- 
quaintance, and our conduct recommended us still more to 
his esteem and notice. That worthy gentleman, who was in- 
defatigable to serve us, went down to Oxford and procured, 
after making all the interest he could, a degree of Master of 
Arts, which was conferred on vis by Diploma in the fullest 
convocation ever known before, and the more honorary this 
was, being done when we were not present ourselves. His 
Lordship, upon his return to London, advised us in conse- 
quence of so high an honor to pay a visit to the University, 
which we did, and were there received with all the demonstra- 



222 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

tions of joy and respect possible by the Vice-cliancellor and the 
other governors of it, with whom we staid a fortnight, with 
the most inexpressible pleasure and delight, —r the Vice- 
chancellor himself presenting to each of us his Diploma in 
the handsomest form and order. 

In about a month after, we agreed to visit the University 
of Cambridge also, where we were admitted ad eimdem, and 
previous to it we passed through all the forms and ceremo- 
nies of it. And there we were likewise treated with uncom- 
mon civility and kindness by the Vice-chancellor, Profess- 
ors, Doctors, Proctors, etc. We spent four days at this seat 
of the Muses, and came back to London, but with this dis- 
agreeable circumstance of my brother traveller being sick 
of that fatal distemper whereof he died. Where he took the 
infection, or by what particular means, I cannot trace out, 
but very well remember his first complaints were in Trin- 
ity Hall, Cant. ; though some say he was out of order by 
overheating his blood, and worrying himself by excessive 
walking in bad weather the day before we sat out upon our 
journey. 

As soon as he got back to his lodgings from this unfortunate 
tour, a surgeon of eminence — Mr. Kinnersly — bled him, 
which was on Saturday evening about eight o'clock, June, the 
12th. The next day, which was Sunday, a physician and 
an apothecary of the first rank and character — Doctor 
Hyberton and Channing — were sent for, who immediately 
pronounced his case dangerous, he having the worst of symp- 
toms, and those of the confluent sort. On the Friday follow- 
ing, growing worse, the help of another physician was found 
necessary, and accordingly, by the advice and desire of good 
Mr. Berriman, Doctor Nichols, a gentleman of great renown 
and formerly of your acquaintance, was applied to, and the 
three consulted together, and did everything for dear Billy 
that they possibly could do. This I was an eye-witness to, as 
I took lodgings in the house where he was from his first being 
put to bed, and constantly staid with him (at his desire), 
and the rather as Mr. Harison was gone into Wales and 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 223 

Ireland. He had also a careful nurse and the best of friends 
about hnn to keep up his spirits. The Revd. minister above 
mentioned was exceeding kind in praying with hira. I like- 
wise prayed with him at several different times, for which he 
always expressed his most humble and hearty thanks. 

In the whole course of his sickness as he had the exercise 
of his reason and understanding, so I observed him full of 
devotion. And when any prayers were offered up in his 
behalf, his attention was fixed to every sentence and period. 
On Sunday, the 20th of June, about two hours before he died, 
[he] begged of me to pray with him before I went out to 
church (for then I was just going to preach for the Rev. 
Doctor Bristowe), which I readily complied with, and couldn't 
help remarking his particular emphasis on the concluding 
word, Amen. This he would speak out distinctly, and au- 
dibly, with his innocent hands lifted up to the God of Heaven 
when he could scarcely be heard to say anything else. 

As I sat by his bed-side observing him to breathe hard, 
I asked him " whetlier he thought himself dangerous, — 
whether he thought he should die," to which he answered, 
" I know not ; I cannot tell." I asked, " whether he was 
anything uneasy about a future state." His answer was " No, 
no, not in the least," To which he further added, " If it be 
the will of God that I may live to see my dear father again, 
I shall be thankful ; if not, his will be done. I can, I do en- 
tirely resign myself to the blessed will of my Creator to dis- 
pose of me as He thinks best." 

This, this was his language, and I may say too, the song of 
his soul. Towards the close of his precious life, he had one or 
two considerable struggles and conflicts, yet still meek, si- 
lent, patient, resigned, — 

" And smiling pleased in Death." 

Death was no surprise to him in the least ; being disarmed 
of its stings and horrors, he bid it welcome, breathing out his 
last in the hands of Jesus. May the dear parents be pre- 
pared to hear the tidings, and supported under so sore a be- 
reavement. 



224 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Ah me ! my companion and friend ! very pleasant hast thou 
been unto me in thy life-time, and now at death not divided. 
O Lord make me to know mine end and the measure of my 
days what it is, that I may know how frail I am. 

Quis talia fando temperet a lachrymis ? 

And after all, the greatest comfort, Rev. and Hon. Sir, to you 
is, that your beloved son only sleepeth ; that you shall see him 
again risen with a more beautified body, like unto his Saviour's, 
and distinguished with the glory of the Lord, — a crown — 
a laurel. The young prophet hath ascended ; may I in par- 
ticular catch his mantle, his spirit descending and resting 
upon me. To conclude, ma}'' both Mr. Harison, who was your 
worthy son's intimate friend, and I, imitate him as he imi- 
tated Christ, and follow him who through faith and patience 
is now inheriting the promises. Then shall we be together 
with him as one, where there will be no parting any more in 
the beatific presence, and ever rejoice in shouting forth the 
praises of God and the Lamb. Even so come Lord Jesus. 

1 most heartily sympathize with you, venerable and much 
afflicted Sir, and the whole distressed family, and wish you 
and them the great consolations which are contained in the 
covenant of grace, and promised to good men under Divine 
chastisement. 

I am, believe me to be, with the utmost sincerity, 
Your very affectionate sympathizing friend, 

Samuel Fayeeweather. 

He was carried on Thursday the 25tli of June into 
the Church of St. Mildred in the Poultry, and, after 
the usual funeral rites, was laid in a vault, under 
the Church, belonging to Mr. Morley, a near relation 
of Mr. Harison. A handsome marble monument was 
afterwards erected to his precious memory at the ex- 
pense of his most loving brother. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 225 



CHAPTER IX. 

GRIEF FOR THE DEATH OF HIS SON AND CORRESPONDENCE WITH 
FRIENDS ; PROGRESS OF THE COLLEGE AND ERECTION OF A 
BUILDING; LEAVES THE CITY ON ACCOUNT OF THE SMALL- 
POX; DEATH OF HIS WIFE ; FIRST COMMENCEMENT; AND IN- 
CLINATIONS TO RESIGN. 

A. D. 1756-1759. 

It is impossible to describe the sorrow of the father 
at the loss of his son. He had written to his friends 
in Stratford as late as the first week in September, to 
say that no new intelligence had been received from 
him, and that he hoped by that time he was " well 
on his way over." The first tidings of his death 
came through a London paper, and followed quickly 
upon the hope thus expressed. He seized his pen 
and wrote again as follows : — 

September 13, 1756. 
Dearest Son, — You will find by an article in the news 
which is out of the London paper, that it hath pleased our 
Heavenly Father to take to himself your dear brother, and 
to deprive me of one of the best of sons and you of the best 
of brothers. May He support and comfort you under these 
heavy tidings, as I hope I may say with thankfulness He does 
us. The wound is exceeding deep, but we have nothing to 
say upon these occasions but Thy will he done I and to make 
the best use we can of it to disengage us from this world, and 
fit us for a better where he is doubtless gone, and where we 
may hope in a little time to meet him never to part more. 
This is all the intelligence we have of it (via Boston), but 

15 



226 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

you see liim in the case so exactly described that there 
is no possible place left to doubt of it. Your sister is at 
Staten Island. I dread at the shock it must give her. 
Thank God we are all in health and send our tender sym- 
pathies with you on this melancholy occasion. This makes 
us the more long to see you again, but must wait till your 
affairs make it practicable. Meantime may God sanctify 
this sad event to you and to us all, and ever have you under 
his most gracious protection. I am, dear son. 

Your most afflicted and affectionate father, 

S. Johnson. 

Several letters passed between them before the 
tidings were confirmed by Mr. Fayerweather's com- 
munication, — in one of which Dr. Johnson said : 
" Dear son, you are now my all ; pray for my sake as 
well as your own be very careful of your health, I 
have always a sort of terror at the sound of Litchfield 
ever since the sickness you got there. I shall long 
to hear you are well returned." Another letter, 
written after all the particulars of William's death 
had been received, is so full of parental tenderness 
and solicitude for his surviving child that it must not 
be omitted in this connection : — 

New York, Octoher 18, 1756. 

My dear and only Son, — I had yours of the 12th and 
thank God for your health and ours. I conclude you had 
my last by the post with Mr. Fayerweather's, though I have 
no answer by Hurd. 

Your kind intentions towards your brother, had he lived, 
are very pleasing to me. You may remember I once 
wished you to assist him, as I was concerned how he would 
be able to get decently along in life. But God, I am per- 
suaded, has provided infinitely better for him than we both 
of us could have done, and yet it is so difficult a thing to be 
disengaged from the hopes and wishes we had of happiness 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 227 

in his continuance with us, that I believe we would both be 
content to be stripped of all we have, if that could fetch him 
back. But God's will is done, and to that we must submit. 

What you mention of his taking away such young persons, 
and especially in prospect of great usefulness, always ap- 
peared to me one of the most difficult phenomena of Provi- 
dence to account for. It did so, on his taking away my 
dear friend, Mr. Brown, who was certainly the best of us 
three, and much such another as your brother. What you 
suggest is the only thing that can satisfy us that there are 
wise and good reasons with that infinitely perfect and best of 
Beings, though it is infinitely beyond us to see them. It is 
impossible for us to judge what is wisest and best, unless we 
knew the whole of things. But He hath kept that future 
world impenetrably out of our sight, doubtless (wisely and 
kindly) to teach us to live by faith, not by sight. A heathen 
would say, Prudens, futuri temporis exitum, calignosa node 
premit Deus. It is certain we can make nothing of Provi- 
dence without taking both worlds into the account ; and in 
this view let us rest. 

Mr. Walker was so kind as to write me a large and elab- 
orate letter on this melancholy occasion, to which I inclose 
an answer open for your perusal, which I desire you to seal 
and deliver to him. I am very sorry you can't be here at 
Christmas. After having had two such desirable sons for 
near thirty years almost always under my eye, now to be to- 
tally deprived of one, and so very seldom to see the other, 
seems very hard. I shall be so out of all patience not to see 
you till spring that I beg of you, if possible, to let us see you 
in that first week in December you mention. 

My dear son — This is your birthday ; ^ you now enter 
upon your thirtieth year, I bless God for preserving you 
both so long to me as He has. May He preserve you still, 
and lengthen out to you a useful life to a good old age, and 
bestow ten thousand blessings on you and yours. And as I 
always set my heart upon your being, both, great and public 

1 He was born on the 7th of October, Old Style. 



228 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

blessings to mankind, and now one is taken away, and some 
part of your private care is thereby abated, I trust you will 
be so much the more of a public spirit, and lay out your life 
and talents to the best advantage for public usefulness, and 
that, as much as you can, in what relates to the interest of 
Religion as well as Justice. I am, with our tenderest re- 
gards to you both, and to the children, dear son. 

Your most affectionate father, 

S. Johnson. 

His friends in England wrote him all the comfort- 
ing words the}^ could, and at the University of Oxford 
a memorial of the character of his son was drawn up, 
in which the Rev. George Home, of Magdalen Col- 
lege, and the Rev. George Berkeley, student of 
Christ Church, had a share, and in which the hope 
was expressed that the guardians of the Church in 
America might find some expedient to " prevent fu- 
ture calamities of this kind, by rendering such long 
and perilous voyages unnecessary." Dr. Johnson 
used the event as a fresh reason for the establish- 
ment of an American Episcopate. In writing to Dr. 
Nicholls, December 10, 1766, and thanking him for 
his kindness to his deceased son, he urged this meas- 
ure with great zeal, but despaired of seeing anything 
accomplished at present. He wrote in a similar strain 
to his other correspondents, and appeared to be as full 
of solicitude for the prosperity of the Church in Amer- 
ica as of sorrow for the death of his beloved child. 
The following letter to the son of Bp. Berkeley may 
be taken as an example of the depth of his feeling on 
both subjects : — 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 229 



King's College, N, Y., December 10, 1756. 

Deaeest Sir, — I have now before me three of your very- 
kind and affectionate letters to acknowledge, which I most 
gratefully do. In particular I thank you for the very tender 
sympathy you express on occasion of the loss of my dear son, 
which is indeed a very heavy loss not only to me and my 
family, but to the poor people to whom he was to minister, 
and hath been most affectionately lamented by all who knew 
him. Your reflections on this mihappy occasion are both 
just and kind, and I thank God, under such considerations, 
He has enabled me to bear it better than I could have ex- 
pected. And however hard it bears on flesh and blood, as I 
am deeply sensible that my Heavenly Father both always 
knows and does what is best, I heartily join with you in say- 
ing, Not my will, O my God, but thine be done ! And I 
gladly take this opportunity to render my most hearty thanks 
to you for the great kindness wherewith you treated my dear 
son, when he was at Oxford, and I beg you will give my 
humblest service and thanks to all those good gentlemen, as 
though named, into whose conversation you introduced him, 
and who treated him with so great kindness, and indeed to 
the whole Senate for the great honor they did him in his de- 
gree, of all which he had a most pleasing and gratef id sense, 
as abundantly appears both from his journal, and a letter 
he wi'ote to me from London soon after. His satisfaction 
in his journey to Oxford was inexpressible, and particularly 
I beg you will give my humblest duty and thanks (lest my 
letter should miscarry) to my Lord of Oxford, whose treat- 
ment of him was like that of a father and friend, rather than 
a stranger and inferior, — for which I cannot be sufficiently 
thankful. 

I am very much obliged to you for sending me a copy of 
your justly renowned and ever honored father's epitaph, for 
whom I had the most intense affection. It is extremely just 
and elegant. It was a mighty satisfaction that our friend- 
ship was Hke to be continued in our sons ; but since God has 



230 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

been pleased to deny it in him that is gone, I wish it may- 
be continued in my only surviving son, who though he is a 
lawyer, and (thank God) is in the best estimation in that 
profession, yet his chief affection is towards Divinity of the 
best sort, having read Hutchinson, etc., and would shine in 
that if he could have orders without such a dangerous voy- 
age, which yet he would not much regard, if he had not a 
family. I beg, therefore, though unknown, he may be num- 
bered among your friends. I desire, when you write, you 
will give my humblest service to that excellent lady your hon- 
ored mother, as well as your brother, of whom I should be 
glad to hear, and assure her that I do most tenderly sympa- 
thize with her in her affliction, and do earnestly pray to God 
for the relief of your dear sister. I bless God who has in- 
fused your heart with a disposition to take Holy Orders in 
this degenerate, apostatizing age, in which a man had need to 
have the spirit of a confessor if not a martyr, and I shall not 
cease to pray earnestly that you may both have the grace and 
opportunity to act a worthy part in 'that capacity for which 
you are so excellently qualified. 

And now it is time that I consider the subjects of your 
other letters, and particularly that I tender you my most 
hearty thanks for the most kind present of books you were 
so good as to send me, which I wish I could retaliate. I 
should have done this sooner but that they arrived not long 
before the sad news of my son's death, having lain so long 
with the Secretary that he had forgotten whence they were. 
Dr. Ellis' performance' I am highly pleased with, so far as 
Religion is concerned, but I cannot say that I am satisfied 
with either Mr. Locke or him in that part. I cannot think 
sense the only source of our knowledge, and must conceive 
consciousness and the pure intellect another, without which 
instruction could take no effect, though it labor in the first 
materials. Bp. Berkeley, Dr. Cudworth, and Plato, should 
be well considered. I desire you would give my humble ser- 
vice and thanks to Mr. Holloway for his kind present, which 
is an excellent performance, but I am afraid of going out 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 231 

of one extreme into another, and so hurting the cause of our 
holy rehgion by carrying the humor of allegorizing too far, 
as some of the pious Fathers seem to have done ; and I have 
thought sometimes "a handle has been groundlessly, at least 
it has been wickedly taken by the enemies of Christianity to 
set them in a very ridiculous light. Dr. Patten's, Mr. Wit- 
tar's and Mr. Home's performances are exceeding good, and 
I am in particular prodigiously pleased with Mr. Home's 
State of the Case, etc., which carries all before it. Would to 
Heaven all Hutchinsonians would write in that candid and 
powerful manner. Their cause, which I am persuaded is 
the cause of God, would at length, methinks, bear down all 
opposition. I long for those things he seems to hint as be- 
ing upon the anvil. In short I am very much obliged to you 
for all those tracts, which are very excellent. I am heartily 
glad Mr. Hutchinson's works are so much esteemed at Ox- 
ford, and you may depend upon it, I shall do my best to make 
that University my pattern as far as may be, and particularly 
to induce as many as I can to study the Hebrew Scriptures, 
and to understand his writings. T thank God my College 
has at last got the victory of its enemies, having had an act 
passed this fall in favor of it by our Assembly, and all op- 
posers stop their mouths. The foundation of the building is 
laid, to be carried on vigorously in spring. But as we shall 
want much assistance, I am very thankful for the forward- 
ness you express to promote it, for the books contributed, 
and believe we shall soon empower somebody to put for- 
ward a subscription in England. 

As to Tillotson, I have myself been heretofore a great 
admirer of his sermons, but for these several years have been 
sensible of the ill-effects of them in these parts, as well as of 
some others worse than they much here in vogue, — and 
done my best to guard against them ; but as he has long been 
in possession, it will not do here to speak against him with 
much acrimony except among Methodists. The Remarks on 
his life are doubtless but too just. However it is good to 
keep the golden mean and hold moderation, a.s far as can con- 



232 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

sist with a wise zeal and steadiness to the cause of God, and 
truth as it is in Jesus. 

I am sadly grieved for the melancholy account you give 
me of some of the chief dignitaries, and the condition of the 
Church there, and little hopes of any estabhshment in our 
favor here. I confess I should scarce have thought my dear 
son's life ill bestowed (nor I believe would he) if it could 
have been a means of awakening this stupid age to a sense 
of the necessity of sending Bishops (at least one good one) to 
• take care of the Church in these vastly wide extended re- 
gions. But alas ! what can be expected of such an age as 
this ! Deus hone in quce tempora reservastis nos ! This is 
now the seventh precious life (most of them the flower of 
this country) that has been sacrificed to the atheistical pol- 
itics of this miserable abandoned age, which seems to have 
lost all notion of the necessity of a due regard to the interest 
of Religion, in order to secure the blessing of God on our na- 
tion both at home and abroad. As to us here, as things have 
hitherto gone, we can scarce look for anything else but to 
come under a foreign yoke. 

But it is now high time I should relieve your patience when 
I begin to have scarce any left of my own. I therefore con- 
clude with my sincere thanks for your affectionate prayers for 
me and mine, the continuance of which I still desire ; and be 
assured that both you and your relatives and friends shall 
always be severally remembered in mine, who am, dear Sir, 
Your most affectionate friend and brother in Christ, 

S. J. 

The affairs of the College in the mean time went 
on prosperously, and Dr. Johnson applied all his en- 
ergies to give form and effect to the plans of the Over- 
seers. They appointed as Tutor, to take the place 
of his lamented son, Mr. Leonard Cutting, a gentle- 
man who had been educated at Eton and the Uni- 
versity of Cambridge, and was well qualified to fill 
the position. It was decided to locate the College 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 233 

building ^^ in the skirts of the city," and the first 
stone, with a suitable inscription, was laid on the 23d 
of August, 1756, by Sir Charles Hardy, at which time 
the President made a short Latin address to the Gov- 
ernors, to Sir Charles, and Mr. De Lancy, the Lieuten- 
ant-governor of the Province, " congratulating them 
on this happy event, which was followed with an ele- 
gant dinner." But an interruption of his personal 
work soon occurred. 

The appearance of the small-pox in the city at the 
setting in of the winter of 1756 obliged him to re- 
tire to West Chester, where he ministered to the poor 
people who had been disappointed in their expecta- 
tions of having his son for their Rector. The thirty 
pupils in the three classes were left in charge of Mr. 
Cutting, to whom Mr. Daniel Treadwell, a graduate 
of Harvard College, was added as an assistant, having 
been appointed Professor of Mathematics and Natu- 
ral Philosophy. Dr. Johnson himself did what he 
could in the way of advice and direction, but his 
long absence was felt to be a hindrance to the" best 
designs of the Institution. At first he seems to 
have retired alone without his family, for he wrote 
to his son from West Chester on the 19th of Decem- 
ber to say, " The kindness of everybody here is inex- 
pressible. My Lord [Underbill] and his family think 
nothing too good for me, or too much to do, and 
everything I say is a law to them. The next day 
after you went away, he begged I would be perfectly 
at home and call for everything I wanted. I told 
him, when at home, I always had my family together 
morning and evening to prayers, and should be glad 
to do the same here. He was very glad at my mo- 



234 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE . 

tion, and is prodigiously pleased with the practice, in- 
somuch that he tells ail his neighbors of it, and if 
any of them are here, he will not let them go away 
before prayers are over. 

" The snow looked terribly, but they intend, if it 
will continue, to make an advantage of it. My Lord 
and the Major have this evening, since church, en- 
gaged fourteen sleds to go to-morrow and fetch all up 
at once, so that I hope we may soon be together again, 
but it looks threatenino; for another storm." 

The storm did continue, and some days elapsed be- 
fore the removal was accomplished. In this retire- 
ment he found opportunity to refresh his mind with 
favorite studies, and to review some of the judg- 
ments which he had formed at an earlier period of 
his ministry. Writing to his son on the 30th of Jan- 
uary, 1757, he said : " Your notion of those Oxford 
gentlemen is doubtless very right, and I hope we shall 
have more of their zealous labors to preserve Religion 
from sinking in this apostatizing age. I confess Dr. 
Clarke, etc. ^ had led me far many years ago into the 
reasoning humor, now so fashionable in matters of Re- 
ligion, from which I bless God I was happily reclaimed, 
first by Forbes and more perfectly by Hutchinson, 
whose system I have been now more thoroughly can- 
vassing from the Hebrew Scriptures, since this retire- 
ment, in regard to the Philosophical as well as the 
Theological part, and, to my unspeakable satisfaction, 
am much convinced it is, in both, entirely right, and 
I could wish jovi to read both Forbes and Pike over 
and over again. 

" But your dear brother yet lies very near my 
heart, and I cannot avoid yet daily and hourly follow- 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 235 

ing him in my thoughts, with the utmost tenderness, 
into the world of Spirits, whither he is gone before us. 
And when I pray for you and all of us, I cannot help 
remembering him, as 1 used to do, but in some sucli 
words as these : ' I humbly hope my dear departed 
son is accepted with Thee in Thy blessed Son, and 
that thou art still his God. be the God of us also 
that survive, — our God and guide and chief good in 
time and to all eternity.' The expression you know 
is taken from that of the God of Abraham, etc., ap- 
plied by our Saviour to the Resurrection ; but we 
must remember it means in the original their Elohim, 
i. e., their Father, Redeemer, and Comforter. No won- 
der then it includes the Resurrection. This custom 
of commemorating our departed friends obtained in 
the best and earliest times of Christianity, and by 
degrees degenerated to praying for them out of pur- 
gatory." 

By the advice of his friends, he continued in his 
retirement at West Chester for upwards of a year, 
the prevalence of the small-pox in the city not mak- 
ing it prudent for him to resume his College duties. 
In the mean time he made a visit with his wife to 
Stratford, and spent several weeks of the early sum- 
mer of 1757 among his old friends and parishioners. 
The journey was performed in a leisurely and private 
manner, and writing to his son on the last day of 
July, not long after the return to West Chester, he 
for the first time spoke of the illness of his wife. Her 
sickness proved to be the fever and ague, a complaint 
which then prevailed quite extensively in that neigh- 
borhood, and another member of his household was ill 
in the same way, — Mrs. Georgiana Maverick, — the 



236 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

widowed daughter of his wife by her former husband. 
No immediate danger attended this sickness, but per- 
sons afflicted with it, especially those -of feeble consti- 
tutions, were often so shattered and reduced by its se- 
verity as never to recover. The following note, writ- 
ten to the wife of his son, shows his anxiety in the 
earlier stages of the complaint : — 

West Chester, September 1-2, 1757. 
Deab, Datjghtek, — I am sensible my son is not at home, 
for which reason I "write to you to let you know how it is 
with us. It is an exceeding sickly time in these parts, and 
we have our share of it, having all of us had the fever and 
ague, but your poor mother has a very bad fever. She had 
got well of the first turn so as to ride about several times, 
But yesterday a week ago she was taken bad again, and has 
been bad all the week and so continues, and God only knows 
what will be the event. It seems to be of the kind they call 
the long fever, but I hope it may have a comfortable issue. 
I mention our case that my son may know how it is when he 
comes home, but would not have him troubled with it where 
he is, and I hope I may be able to give him a better account 
of it by the time he returns. I was glad to find by his last 
letter that you were all in health, which I pray God con- 
tinue. We all give our kind love to you and the children, 
and to him when he returns, and to Mrs. Beach. 
I am, dear daughter, 

Your most affectionate father and friend, 

S. Johnson. 

The next letter bore more favorable intelligence, 
but the signs of improvement were not lasting. Un- 
der the pressure of all his trials, his pen was employed 
whenever he could be of any service to the Church, 
and on the 3d of October, he excused himself from 
writing more largely to his son, because he had been 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 237 

obliged to prepare a long letter to the Rev. Mr. Wet- 
more, who had applied to him for his advice to be 
communicated to a meeting of the clergy which he 
was about to call at Stamford on the 13th at the in- 
stance of the Society " to look into the affairs of Mr. 
Beach's^ sermon, and try to bring him to a better 
mind." " Truly," said Johnson, " things are come to 
that pass that he must make some submission to the 
Society or be discarded, or at least severely repri- 
manded, for Hobart ^ has procured a complaint from 
their Association against him to the Society, which has 
put them on these measures, though I wish this could 
be concealed, and that it could be rather represented 
as arising ex proiorio moiu from other information," 
which the Society possessed. Writing to his son a 
week later, he referred again to Mr. Beach playfully 
as one who " had always those two seeming inconsis- 
tencies, to be dying and yet relishing sublunary 
things." The reprimand, if given, seems not to have 
been very severe, and Mr. Beach subsequently in a 
measure atoned for his mistake by the publication of a 
sermon on " Scripture Mysteries," which received the 
sanction of his brethren, and was introduced to the 
public with a preface from the pen of Johnson himself. 
Not deeming it prudent to return to New York in 
consequence of the small-pox, he moved into more 
comfortable quarters at West Chester, and for a good 
part of the winter was alternately hopeful and fear- 
ful about the result of his wife's illness. Occasionall}^ 
his sorrow for the death of his son would break out 

1 Rev. John Beach. The sermon was An Inquiry concerning the State of the 
Dead, which was misunderstood, and he regretted its publication. 

2 Mr. Beach had very properly answered his " Addresses to the members of the 
Episcopal Separation in New England." 



238 LIFE AND COREESPONDENCE 

afresh, and any allusion to it by an English friend was 
sure to stir the depths of his feeling. He closed a 
letter to his son at Stratford, December 18, 1757, 
thus : " You tell me in your last you have had the 
inelancholy pleasure of seeing Mr. Harison. It must 
be so, indeed ; but though I have been very impatient 
for it, I have not yet had the opportunity. He 
sent me a short letter from Dr. Bearcroft, of July 2, 
by which it appears he had written to me the Sep- 
tember before, which must have miscarried. It only 
relates to a scheme of the Society, to educate some 
Indian youths in my College as an expedient towards 
propagating Christianity among them. I want very 
much to see him, in order the better to know how to 
write my letters and what to do with these bills, and 
I fear I shall lose the opportunities. 

Christmas is quite at hand, and if we may not have 
the pleasure of seeing you here (which though I long 
for, yet I durst not expect, however so much I desire 
it, it being such a tedious journey), I wish you may 
have a pleasant one and a happy new year, and many, 
many more." 

He was induced to consult his old family physician 
at Stratford, Dr. Harpin, about his wife, who, as 
the winter wore on, became troubled with a cough 
and shortness of breath, and other symptoms of a con- 
sumption. She gradually improved under the use of 
new remedies, and by the middle of February, Dr. 
Johnson began to think of returning to his duties in 
town. The appearance of the small-pox at West 
Chester hastened this step, for in a letter to his son on 
the 4th of March, 1758, he said : " The young fellows 
here purposely take the small-pox so much, that I be- 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 239 

lieve we cannot be any longer safer here than at town, 
so that I think to go within about a week, and the 
family will, I believe, hardly continue out the month 
before they follow me." Three weeks later he wrote 
again, but now from New York, where he had been 
nearly the whole of this time at the house of his step- 
son, and mentioned, " I have been but little abroad as 
yet, though I have some thoughts of venturing to 
church to-morrow. I have been and shall be very 
careful, but the small-pox is certainly very thin now, 
as neither doctors nor ministers, nor anybody else 
that I have seen, can tell where it is, of their own 
knowledge ; but doubtless it is in some remote skirts 
of the town. However, I hope God will preserve me 
from it : the Freshmen have attended me every day 
at your brother's." 

The family followed him to town early in April, and 
carried with them the fever and ague, which had af- 
flicted his wife and daughter so long at West Chester. 
The change brought no real relief, and the letters of 
the father to the son spoke more and more discour- 
agingly of the recovery of Mrs. Johnson. The crisis 
had been reached and all hope relinquished, when the 
following was written from, — 

New York, May 29, Monday, 11 o'clock. 

My dearest Son, — God is now calling me to pass 
through another great revolution in my circumstances ; 
another great change in my condition, which I hope may fur- 
ther contribute to prepare me the better for my last. I should 
have written by Philip Nicholls, but he called in the utmost 
hurry so early, that having sat up till 1 o'clock, I was not yet 
awake. He could give you, or at best my dear daughter, a 
prelude to what is now to foUow. Your dear mother continued 



240 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

as she was, without seeming worse till about six o'clock last 
Friday evening, having rid out the day before, and conversed 
and walked about as • usual, and would have rid out that dav 
but the wind was too high. But about that hour she was 
seized all at once with a terrible shivering, not cold, but con- 
vulsive, which issued in a most terrible fever, and tormenting 
pains, except short intervals of dozing, which continued till 
midnight last night, since which she has been tolerably easy 
and slept a good deal, but is reduced to the lowest ebb of life, 
and cannot hold it many hours. She is perfectly resigned, and 
sometimes even longs to be released, with good hopes of a 
blessed immortality. May God give her an abundant en- 
trance into his heavenly kingdom, and a happy meeting with 
your dear brother ! 

Had you been at Stratford, I should have sent an express 
for you to come, but the suddenness of the occasion, all the 
while threatening speedy death, together with your great dis- 
tance, made us think it best to decline it, though I shall hope 
to see you as soon as may be, as you may chance to be here 
before her funeral. But you must be careful and inquisitive 
as you come along, as I hear the small-pox is much at New 
Rochelle, and about the half way to the Bridge, where you 
may do well to have some tar to smell to, and tobacco in your 
mouth. Yesterday I asked her whether there was anything 
she would have me say to you in particular. She bid me 
give her love and dying blessing to you and your children. 
Take care, dear son, you do not overdo yourself. You are 
now my all in effect. Your brother and sisters with me give 
our love to you all. Lachrymans scribo, being, dear son. 
Your most affectionate, bvit very afflicted father, 

S. Johnson. 

She lingered till the Thursday evening after the 
date of this letter, and then expired, thus sundering 
a happy connection which had existed for more than 
thirty-two years. She was buried under the chancel 
of Trinity Church — the old edifice which was after- 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 241 

vrards destroyed in the great conflagration that befell 
the city during the Revolutionary War. 

It had been decided to hold the first commence- 
ment of the College on the 21st of June, and John- 
son, who was desirous of making a good appearance, 
turned, in the freshness of his grief, to the work of 
preparing for this occasion. The graduating class 
numbered eight, and the two tutors, Cutting and 
Treadwell, with eleven other gentlemen, were admit- 
ted to the degree of Master of Arts. An " elegant 
entertainment " followed the public exercises, and 
such was the interest manifested in the Institution 
that a new impulse seemed to be given to its pros- 
perity. Materials for completing the college building 
were at once procured, and then when the stone had 
been delivered, a delay arose from an unexpected 
cause. The difficulty of finding suitable workmen 
prevented any progress, so that nothing more was 
done till the winter had passed away and the spring 
opened. In the meantime Johnson, who had previ- 
ously applied to the Archbishop of Canterbury and 
other friends in England for aid in behalf of the Col- 
lege, was not much encouraged by the answers which 
he received. A good philosophical and mathemati- 
cal apparatus had been obtained, and the Rev. Dr. 
Bristowe, of London, who befriended his lamented 
son, intimated his purpose of procuring a large library 
for the infant seminary, a purpose which he after- 
wards executed by bequeathing to it his own valuable 
collection of nearly fifteen hundred volumes. But 
money to finish the building and endow the College 
was not readily given. 

Having two good tutors, one to take charge of the 

16 



242 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Classical and the other of the Mathematical depart- 
ment, he devoted himself chiefly to teaching the New 
Testament in Greek ; and to Logic, Metaphysics, and 
Ethics, with lessons in Hebrew to those who desired 
to become acquainted with that language. He was 
interrupted for a time in his duties by sickness in the 
family, and was himself severely attacked with the 
measles in March, 1759, from which it was feared he 
might not recover. " God grant," he wrote to his 
son after all danger was passed, " that my life may 
have been spared to some good purpose, and that 
what remains of it may be more abundantly employed 
to his glory in the station I am in ! " 

A gloomy and anxious winter was not succeeded by 
a joyous spring, for Mrs. Maverick, upon whom, 
since the death of his wife, he had depended for the 
oversight of his domestic affairs, was in a precarious 
state of health, with decided tendencies to consump- 
tion. As late as the 28th of May, in reply to an in- 
vitation from his son's wife to visit Stratford, he said : 
" Your sister thanks you for your kind letter, but by 
reason of her weakness, begs me to answer it for her. 
She, as well as I, would gladly make you a visit, but 
she continues so infirm that I can neither bring her 
nor leave her ; so that I must not have the pleasure 
of seeing you and my dear little girls this spring, but 
hope I may in the fall." 

In less than a month from this date he had given up 
all hope of her recovery, and admitted to her friends 
that she was in a " fixed, incurable consumption." 
Her death came sooner than he expected ; occurring 
on the 28th of June, thirteen months from the decease 
of her mother, and she was buried in the same grave 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 243 

above her, under the chancel of Trinity Church. " I 
am again," he informed his son, " bereaved, and now 
in a manner stripped. Your dear sister is gone and 
has left me very disconsolate." The event opened 
afresh his former griefs, and revived his inchnations 
to retire from the charge of the College and .spend 
the remainder of his days in Stratford. But he was 
urged to remain, and the state of the Institution al- 
most forbid him to leave it at this crisis. 

The second Commencement had just been held and 
was private ; one student only being admitted to the 
degree of Bachelor of Arts. The building was going 
on vigorously under his own eye, and his counsel and 
influence were much needed in the further steps to be 
taken for the advancement of the College. The fol- 
lowing letter to Archbishop Seeker shows that while 
he was deeply interested in the prosperity of the 
Church at large, and desirous of seeing another Mis- 
sion established in New England, he was on the watch 
also for some suitable person to be his successor. 

April 25, 1 759. 

May it please yottr Geace, — In the beginning of last 
month I wrote an answer in part to your Grace's most kind 
letter of September 27. I hoped then by this time to have 
made a reply to the rest of that very important letter, but I 
have not sufficient information relating to some things, espec- 
ially what concerns our frontiers. The occasion of my now 
writing is the desire and request of the clergy of Boston, that 
some letters of mine may accompany theirs that are going by 
this pacquet in behalf of Mr. Apthorp and a Mission at Cam- 
bridge near Boston. Indeed, that paragraph of your Grace's _ 
letter relating to Missions in New England, very much dis- 
courages me from writing anything relating to new Missions 
in these provinces. What I am now doing, therefore, pro- 



244 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

ceeds purely from my friendship to those worthy gentlemen, 
to which I should be wanting, if I should refuse to write any- 
thing on this occasion. I therefore humbly beg your Grace 
will excuse me, if I only suggest that I am fully satisfied that 
- a Mission would be of very good use to the interest of the 
Church and true religion so near that College, for the reasons 
they give, but what strongly sways with me is, that we want 
extremely to have as many worthy men as possible in this 
country, and Mr. Apthorp, by all accounts of him, is indeed 
a very superior young gentleman, having been bred at Cam- 
bridge, England, and merited a fellowship there, and that 
estimation aiid prospect of preferment that everybody won- 
ders at his disposition to tarry in this, even though it be his 
native country, at all. And since it is so, I am very desir- 
ous to keep him, and the rather as he, having a considerable 
fortune of his own, may probably prove a fitter person than 
any we can ever expect to procure to succeed me in this sta- 
tion, and I am very desirous, if it may be, to be acquainted 
with my successor before I leave it, and that he may be some 
worthy person who has been bred at one of your Universi- 
ties at home. However, whether the Society can think 
proper to make a new Mission in New England imder the 
present condition of things, must be humbly submitted to 
the msdom and goodness of the Board. 

I remain, may it please your Grace, 

Your Grace's most obliged, etc.,' 

S.J. 

In writing to Dr. Bearcroft, the Secretary of the 
Society^ two months after this, he expressed himself as 
having little expectation of a collection in England 
for his College, but it needed assistance so much, and 
he urged its claims with such zeal, that the board gen- 
erously donated <£500 sterling, — a gift which seemed 
to put new life into the hopes and energies of the 
somewhat tardy Governors. He defended at this 



OF SAMUEL JOHJ^SON. 245 

period the Missionaries of the Society against the 
complaints of the Dissenters, who accused them of 
using undue means to gain the attention of their 
brethren and make converts. Seeker had written 
him for information on the subject, and he rephed 
repelhng the accusations, and adding : " The quarrels 
of the Dissenters among themselves, especially, occa- 
sioned by the late enthusiasm, contributed vastly more 
to drive honest thinking people into the Church than 
any endeavors of the clergy to make proselytes. 
There is now a flagrant instance of this at Walling- 
ford, a large country town in the heart of Connecti- 
cut." The " late enthusiasm " was the result of 
Whitefield's itinerancy, and a body of " shocking 
teachers followed him, who propagated so many wild 
notions of God and the Gospel, that a multitude of 
people were so bewildered that they could find no 
rest to the sole of their feet till they retired into 
the Church as the only ark of safety." The great 
want of the Church here was a Bishop, and he im- 
plored the authorities at home, in spite of the mis- 
representations of their adversaries, to send one to 
America. " He need not," he said, "be fixed in New 
England, or in any part where Dissenters abound. 
He might be fixed at Virginia, where the Church is 
established, and only visit us northward once in three 
or four years. We should be content to ride three or 
four hundred miles for Hol}^ Orders." 

No objection was made at a meeting of the Society 
to the Mission at Cambridge, and to the appointment 
of Mr. Apthorp, with an annual stipend of £50. He 
met with a better reception at first among the Dis- 
senters than was anticipated, and his temper, pru- 



246 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

dence, and abilities, gave him great advantage, if not 
influence, in that important seat of learning. But the 
Archbishop did not so complacently accord with John- 
son in his plan of providing for his own retirement. 
^' Your views," he said, "in relation to a successor, are 
very worthy of you ; but I hope many years will pass 
before there be occasion to deliberate on that head." 
The change might bring with it no little discourage- 
ment, and put in peril the best interests of the Insti- 
tution. At least it was too soon to give publicity to 
his intentions, and work with this end mainly in view. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 24' 



CHAPTER X. 

SMALL-POX AGAIN IN NEW YORK, AND RETIREMENT TO STRAT- 
FORD ; MORE AFFLICTION; THIRD COMMENCEMENT; LETTERS TO 
THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY; PUBLICATIONS ON PRAYER, 
AND DEFENSE OF THE LITURGY. 

A. D. 1759-1761. 

The disease which had been the great horror of his 
life, drove him once more from his post. " Never " 
he wrote to his son, on the 15th of October, " was 
anything known Hke the present breaking out of the 
small-pox in New York. It seems as though it arose 
out of the ground. They are surprised at it and can- 
not account for it." He undertook to keep himself 
from exposure, and for a time heard the recitations 
of the classes in his own dwelling, but soon the dis- 
ease appeared almost at his door, and fortifying 
himself as best he could, he hurried from the city to 
a farm-house in the suburbs, where he remained until 
all danger of having taken it was pa^t, and then with 
a servant he proceeded to Stratford. Shut up in this 
rural retreat, he spent the winter with his son, more 
anxious than ever for the College, since one of the 
tutors — Mr. Treadwell — was in a decline, and could 
render very little assistance to his colleague. He 
died of consumption before the spring had much ad- 
vanced ; and thus the entire management of the In- 
stitution, in the absence of the President, devolved 
upon Mr. Cutting. 



248 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Dr. Johnson did not return to New York until the 
middle of May, and it was with some fear that he 
ventured at this time, for there were a few scattered 
cases of small-pox about the town, and he could not 
knoYvT when he might expose himself and become a 
victim of the distemper. A desolate feeling possessed 
him as he resumed his college duties. The city ap- 
peared to him as it never had before, almost a wil- 
derness, for besides the loss of Mr. Treadwell, a place 
among the Governors had been vacated which he 
could not hope to see again filled by one of equal 
energy and influence. Benjamin NicoU, the younger 
son of his deceased wife, whose education from child- 
hood he had superintended, who had risen to the 
highest eminence as a lawyer in the city, and whose 
house had been his home as much as that of his own 
son in Stratford, sickened and died at the age of 
forty-two, ill April, 1760, before he could return. 
It was said that " never in the memory of man at 
New York was any one so much lamented." His 
death was the severest misfortune which had befallen 
the College. It filled its friends with consternation, 
and to Johnson in particular it was a most painful 
bereavement, for of all the members of the govern- 
ing board, none was more able, wise, and zealous than 
he, and upon none had he relied more confidently 
to carry him through his perplexities and trials, and 
enable him to place the College upon a broad and firm 
foundation. 

His long absence and the sickness and death of his 
" best tutor " had been a serious detriment to the In- 
stitution. Several of the students withdrew, and the 
prospect for the future was surrounded with gloom. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 249 

These things made it the more necessary for him to 
apply all his energy and ingenuity to recover from 
the losses which had been suffered, and get back the 
confidence of those who had grown lukewarm or 
doubtful. The college building, one hundred and 
eighty feet in length by thirty, three stories high, 
erected in a delightful situation near the Hudson 
Kiver, and " opening to the harbor," was so far com- 
pleted that he moved into it and " set up housekeep- 
ing and tuition there, a little more than forty years 
after he had done the same at Yale College in New 
Haven." He wrote very earnestly to the Archbishop 
of Canterbury and begged him to send two good tutors 
— one that might be qualified in time to succeed him, 
and the other to take the department of mathematics 
and experimental philosophy, made vacant by the 
death of Mr. Treadwell. His Grace replied : " It 
grieves me that you should be without help so long. 
If any other person can procure it for you, I should 
be heartily glad. But I think you had better wait 
than have a wrong person sent you from hence. 
Could you not get some temporary assistance in your 
neighborhood ? " 

The selection was a difficult one in view of the 
requirements of Johnson. Among other names rec- 
ommended to Seeker was that of Myles Cooper, — 
a Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford. He had the 
reputation of being a grave and good man, and was 
" very well affected to the government ; well quali- 
fied for the inferior tutor's place, but not inclined to 
accept it ; not unskilled in Hebrew, and willing to 
take the Vice-President's office, but not of age for 
Priest's Orders " till the lapse of several months. This 



250 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

gentleman, as it will be seen, was afterwards appointed 
and made a useful and accomplished head of the In- 
stitution. 

The third Commencement and the first from the 
college building, was now held, and the President de- 
livered a brief speech in Latin to the governing body, 
congratulating them on the privilege of assembling in 
their new hall, and marking the event as the begin- 
ning of a fresh epoch in the history of the college. 
The degree of Bachelor of Arts was conferred upon 
six young gentlemen, and the eclat given to the oc- 
casion helped to bring the officers of instruction 
favorably before the public. The next term opened 
well, but as no assistance had been obtained, the 
President and Mr. Cutting were obliged to do double 
duty ; and the whole year, as he himself said, " was 
remarkable only on account of hard services, which 
made him more and more weary of his station." 

A preparatory school was projected about this time, 
and Johnson applied to the Rev. East Apthorp, the 
scholarly Missionary at Cambridge, referred to in the 
previous chapter, for his idea of what might be " ex- 
ecuted at school and at college by a person of mid- 
dling genius, persevering in a regular course of mod- 
erate study and assisted by good instructors." The 
very full answer which was returned, embraced what 
he was pleased to call an " excellent plan of educa- 
tion," and he would have been contented without 
seeking tutors from abroad, if he could have had the 
assistance of Mr. Apthorp in carrying it into execu- 
tion throughout the whole course. "But since Prov- 
idence," he wrote him, " seems to be ordering other- 
wise, I hope you are reserved for yet higher and 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 251 

better things. It may yet be a considerable time first, 
but as there is the greatest need of it, and the utmost 
propriety in it, that bishops should be sent into 
America, — for the accomplishing which I hope you 
will be continually using your influence in the man- 
ner the Archbishop advises, that the Church may 
enjoy in full her government and discipline here at 
least as well as the Dissenters theirs, — I hope the 
time is not a great way off before that most prim- 
itive and apostolical order may be established here, 
and I pray God you may be the first that may serve 
your country in that capacity." 

His correspondence with the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury turned upon matters which directly concerned 
the welfare of the Church. Sometimes, but rarely, 
he touched upon delicate questions of State policy, 
and during his retirement at Stratford in the win- 
ter of 1759-60, having little to do, and taking the 
advice of " several gentlemen of good understanding 
and public spirit," he drew up a paper with a view 
at first of publishing it in the " London Magazine," 
but upon reflection concluded to send it to his Grace 
and inclose copies to him for Lord Halifax and Mr. 
Pitt, with instructions to suppress or communicate his 
thoughts as he should see fit. Relying on his great 
candor he added in reference to the paper ; " I hum- 
bly hope you will impute it to the feeble struggles of 
a well-meaning mind, that would be useful to the 
world if it could, but desires to be retired and con- 
cealed. I can only assure your Grace that it is the 
wish of many gentlemen in these two colonies, though 
but few know in confidence of my having taken this 
step." 



252 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

It does not appear what the particular subjects 
were which he thus presented, but they related to 
America, and were written under the name of Philang- 
lus Americanus.. They met with no favor, for the 
Archbishop in his reply, November 4th, 1760, said : " I 
shall ahvays be pleased with your notifying and pro- 
posing to me whatever you apprehend to be material ; 
because I know it will always be done with good inten- 
tion, and almost always furnish me with useful notices ; 
and indeed will be of no small use, even when you may 
happen to judge amiss, as it will give me an opportu- 
nity of setting you right. In my opinion, the paper 
intended for the '^ London Magazine,' and the letters 
for Lord Halifax and Mr. Pitt, are of the latter sort. 
The things said in them are in the main right, so far 
as they may be practicable ; but publishing them to 
the world beforehand, instead of waiting till the time 
comes, and then applying privately to the persons 
whose advice the king will take about them, is likely 
to raise opposition and prevent success. Publishing 
them, indeed, in a magazine, may raise no great 
alarm ; but then it will be apt to produce contempt, 
for those monthly collections are far from being in 
high esteem. And as soon as either of those great 
men should see that the queries offered to him were 
designed to be inserted in any of them, he would 
be strongly tempted to throw them aside, without 
looking further into them, even were he otherwise 
disposed to read them over ; which men of business 
seldom are, when they receive papers from unknown 
hands, few of them in proportion deserting it. You 
wiU pardon the frankness with which I tell you my 
thoughts. Whatever good use I can make of your 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 253 

iioiioiis, I will. But the use which you propose is 
not agreeable to my judgment." 

Johnson had mentioned in the same letter which 
accompanied his paper the sudden death of Mr. De 
Lancey, the Lieutenant-governor of New York, and 
suggested the importance of appointing in his place 
" not only a good statesman, but a friend to religion 
and the Church, and exemplary in attendance on her 
public offices, for want of whicli, religion had suffered 
extremely in that province." The suggestion was 
felt to be worthy of consideration. " I have spoken," 
said the Archbishop, " concerning a Lieutenant-gov- 
ernor, in the manner whicli you desired, to the Duke 
of Newcastle and Mr. Pitt, and also to Lord Halifax, 
in whom the choice is. They all admit the request 
to be Ji. very reasonable and important one ; and 
promise that care shall be taken about it. The last 
of them is very earnest for Bishops in America. I 
hope we may have a chance to succeed in that great 
point, when it sludl please God to bless us with a 
peace." 

Every letter written at this period was but a repe- 
tition of the wants of the Church in the American 
Colonies, and of his own desire for aid in carrying 
on the College. It was as difficult to find tutors as 
suitable persons to supply the vacant missions. After 
many diligent inquiries, the Archljishop had thus far 
been unsuccessful in meeting his wishes, and as a 
means of providing for the Church, he expressed 
the hope that good young men might be sent over 
from this country to receive ordination and be re- 
turned to fulfill the office of missionaries in the old 
parishes. The eye of Johnson was especially fixed 



254 LIFE AND COREESPONDENCE 

upon the Church in Connecticut and New York, 
though he was depended upon in London for informa- 
tion to some extent, in regard to all the colonies. 
The Society looked to him for facts which it cost him 
much labor to procure, and frequently it was a long 
time before he could reply intelligently to all the in- 
quiries received. He sent off by every packet some- 
thing which was designed to put his English friends 
and patrons in possession of the state of American 
feeling, and transmitted, as they were issued, the pam- 
phlets and publications that bore upon the concerns 
of the Church. The idea of the geography and ex- 
tent of this continent was less understood in England 
then than now, — and it is not very well compre- 
hended at the present time, — so that when the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury in the same letter addressed 
questions to him for information concerning Missiona- 
ries from Newfoundland to North Carolina, he could 
not answer to his own satisfaction till he had obtained 
the data on which to proceed. 

Quietly fixed at housekeeping in the College build- 
ing, he passed the winter of 1760-61, and took great 
pains to preserve his health and avoid exposure to the 
dreaded contagious disease. He wrote his son at 
Stratford about the middle of November : " It would 
be an unspeakable satisfaction to see you here, but I 
would rather be denied it than you should be too 
much incommoded. I believe the small-pox will die 
away again, though perhaps never be quite gone. 
It would be one of the greatest satisfactions in life 
to me to have you well through it by inoculation, 
from which there are so good hopes that I should 
not care to oppose it, if you think it best to under- 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 255 

take it, and 3^et I dare not urge you to it, but would 
leave it to Providence and the dispositions of your 
own mind. It is indeed a wretched embarrassment 
to me in my present situation ; so that if your case 
was as mine is, I should be almost ready to even ad- 
vise you to it, and did I not think of retiring for 
good and all when it becomes general again, .if I 
should live to it, I should be almost resolved to run 
the risk of it yet." 

A few days before Christmas, when he was expect- 
ing a visit from his son, which the illness of his wife 
prevented, he wrote him again, a brief note in which 
were the words: '-'I hope by your account you 
are in no danger of the small-pox, as perhaps you 
would have been had you been here and gone much 
about, for there is a good deal of it about town. On 
which account I have been out only at Church and 
Mr. Barclay's these three or four weeks. Thank God, 
I continue in perfect health, and hope with this care 
I am in no danger." 

The friends of the Institution were anxious to con- 
tinue him at its head, and saw the importance of 
keeping him on the spot now that an effort was about 
to be made to renew the application for contributions 
from abroad. The times appeared more auspicious. 
The King of Great Britain had died suddenly on the 
25th of October, 1760, and his grandson, George 
III., ascended the throne in the twenty-third year of 
his age, a sovereign of religious impulses and un- 
spotted reputation. " The young king begins his 
reign, you see," wrote Johnson to his son, referring 
him to the public prints, " with a glorious proclama- 
tion in favor of religion and virtue, — the like to 



256 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

which I believe has not been before, unless in Queen 
Anne's reign." 

The Episcopal clergy in this country transmitted ad- 
dresses to him upon his accession, but that of the 
clergy in and near Boston was not presented to him, 
because it was thought to mention Bishops prema- 
turely. " This is a matter," wrote Seeker to John- 
son, " of which you in America cannot judge ; and 
therefore I beg you will attempt nothing without the 
advice of the Society or of the Bishops." He had 
written to his Grace, and with the advice of some 
of his clerical brethren, humbly suggested to him, 
whether there would not be good reason to hope 
from the declarations of the young king that upon the 
commencement of a peace he might be prevailed upon 
to settle Episcopacy in America, and whether the 
draught of an address to his Majesty something like 
the one which he inclosed, would not be expedient 
and contribute to this end. 

The Governors of the College took occasion to add 
their congratulations in a formal way, and to mani- 
fest their loyalty as dutiful subjects of the youthful 
sovereign. Johnson was the author of this address, 
as he was of that which went from the clergy of New 
York, and the two neighboring provinces, but it does 
not seem to have awakened any new interest in be- 
half of his plans, and probably it was too soon after 
the coronation, to hope for benefits or changes. The 
most that it could do may have been to lead the King 
to inquire concerning the signers, and, as Seeker sug- 
gested, " express himself in relation to them." 

In the autumn of 1760 he published a discourse 
entitled : " A demonstration of the Reasonableness, 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 257 

Usefulness, and great Duty of Prayer," which he ded- 
icated to Jeflery Amherst, Major-general and Com- 
mander-in-chief of all his Majesty's forces in North 
America. The dedication was a graceful compliment 
to him for the " glorious success " which had attended 
his conduct in the reduction of Canada, " an event," 
he added, '' of immortal renown, and a signal reward 
of your piety and virtue." The discourse was writ- 
ten at the earnest request of a person of note, who 
put into his hands a manuscript, undertaking to 
prove by reason, that Prayer, since it implies a pe- 
tition to God to supply any wants of ours, is in effect, 
" an utterly impertinent and insignificant thing, and 
but a mere useless ceremony." Appended to it, was a 
letter to a friend in West Chester, relating to the same 
subject, with whom he had expostulated for not fre- 
quenting the public worship as usual, and whose ab- 
sences sprung not so much from indifference, as from 
doubts and infidel speculations. He closed it in words 
as applicable to men of the present day, as to skep- 
tics who lived a century ago. 

I am grieved to hear you complain of endless doubts and 
perplexities in matters of religion, for it is indeed a miserable 
state to be worried with a spirit of skepticism, and dark sus- 
picions and surmises about this, and that, and the other. 
Nuhila mens est hcec ubi regnant. " It is a cloudy, doleful 
state of mind where these prevail." Pray sit down then and 
carefully distinguish and separate things certain from things 
doubtful, and abide by them, and give the doubts to the winds ; 
but never doubt whether you ought diligently to attend on the 
public service of God. Attend, I say, in the first place, and 
above all things, to plain, evident, practical matters, and es- 
pecially five in the constant regular practice of true devotion 
towards God in Christ, who is our only Supreme Good ; and 

17 



258 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

trouble not your head witli curious disputes and speculations, 
and perplexing doubts and intricacies, many of wliich are 
only strifes about words, and others about things we have 
no concern with, and things quite beyond our faculties. 

I will only add, that I am fully persuaded when you come 
to leave' thisiworld, it will be the greatest satisfaction to you, 
to be able to say with the royal Psalmist, " Lord, I have 
loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where 
thine honor dwelleth." I hope, therefore, you will this once 
excuse this long letter from a faithful friend, who is solici- 
tously concerned for your best good, and I commend you 
to God's protection, conduct, and blessing. 

To confirm the truth of his words, and give force 
to his reasoning, he subjoined a sententious extract 
from a sermon of his venerated friend Dr. Seeker, 
the archbishop of Canterbury. " There must be pub- 
lic virtue, or government cannot stand ; there must 
be private virtue, or there cannot be public ; there 
must be religion, or there can be neither ; there 
must be true religion, or there will be false. There 
must be attendance on God's worship, or there will 
be no religion at all." 

This publication was followed by happy effects, and 
several months after he printed as a sequel to it a ser- 
mon, " On the Beauty of Holiness in the Worship of 
the Church of England," which he recommended to 
the attention of the good people of New England, 
and particularly of his former parishioners at Strat- 
ford and West Chester. It was a temperate defense 
of the Liturgy, and aimed to " show that in the Church' 
of England we do most truly worship Almighty God, 
that our worship is a most holy worship, and tends to 
promote holiness in the best manner, and that it is a 
most beautiful worship, and is truly worshipping God 
in the beauty of holiness." 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 259 

A passage under the last head, though somewhat 
quaint in its phraseology, may be cited as an example 
of the spirit of the whole discourse : — 

Our worship is truly beautiful in its language, which is 
very weighty and expressive. It may, perhaps, be granted 
that in a few passages, it may be capable of some improve- 
ments, but in general this must be allowed to be the char- 
acter of its language, that it carrieth a great force and weight 
with it, without either deficiency or redundancy, and is in 
the happy medium between an affectation of verbosity, and 
high flown figures, on the one hand, and obscurity and dull- 
ness, and a low vulgar meanness of expression on the other. 
It hath a grandeur and majesty in it, and, at the same time, 
a most easy, natural, intelligible simplicity ; always fitted 
to the weight and importance of the matter, and the capac- 
ities of the whole body of worshippers. If it savors of an- 
tiquity, and on that account be thought not so polite to 
modern ears, yet this very thing giveth it an air of the 
greater gravity and importance, and there are but very 
few expressions that are at all the less intelligible, though 
it is nigh two hundred years old ; and it adds much to its 
beavity, that it is expressed as far as it could well be, in the 
very language of Scripture, being an excellent collection from 
the very Word of God, which is ever full of majesty and 
grandeur. And as there cannot be a more decent and beau- 
tiful sight than to behold a great number of intelligent 
beings, the creatures and children of God, jointly conspiring 
to do all the honor they can to Him their common parent, in 
their united adoration of Him, so there is the greatest pro- 
priety and fitness in it, and consequently the greatest beauty 
that they should worship their heavenly Father in his own 
language, in the words which He hath put into their mouths. 
If, therefore, we love the Scriptures, we cannot fail to love 
the worship of the Church of England, which is for the most 
part taken from them, and entirely conformed to them. 

But it adds to the beautv of our excellent Liturgy, that 



260 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

there is an admirable proportion in all its parts ; insomuch 
that no one part is so swelled or enlarged beyond its meas- 
ure, as to jostle out or starve another. There is a just pro- 
portion of Devotions and Lessons, of Prayers and Praises, 
of Confessions and Deprecations, of Supplications and In- 
tercessions, of Petitions and Thanksgivings for ourselves and 
for all men, for kings, and all that are in authority, and for 
all orders and conditions of men. And as all these parts of 
worship, without deficiency or redundancy, are thus so ex- 
quisitely fitted and proportioned one to the other, so they all 
aim at one end, to which they are no less aptly fitted and 
proportioned, namely, to advance the honor of God and the 
general benefit of mankind, and to promote universal holi- 
ness and righteousness among them, all which considerations 
abundantly speak their harmony and beauty. 

And this beauty is further mightily improved by that 
grateful yariety that appears among them, which renders our 
Liturgy like a beautiful garden, wherein there is a delightful 
variety of luxuriant nature intermixed with curious art, of 
other various plants with trees ; of fruits vnth flowers of di- 
vers sorts, all ranged in a various and beautiful order. In 
like manner, in our Liturgy, devotions are gratefully inter- 
mixed with lessons, and prayers with praises. The people's 
part is generally intermixed with the minister's, and short 
responses, in the form of ejaculations, with set and continued 
prayers, in which there is an agreeable variety, and the 
prayers are each of them short, in imitation of the Lord's 
Prayer ; and there is a correspondent variety of actions of 
the body, suited to this variety of the exercises of the mind ^ 
all wisely contrived to keep the congregations wakeful, lively, 
and attentive. This method is therefore vastly preferable to 
one tedious, long-continued prayer, vdthout any variety, as is 
the case with our neighbors, in which the people's attention 
flags, and they grow dull and heavy, and the force of their 
devotion is extremely weakened. On which account nothing 
should tempt me to exchange our beautiful variety of short 
devotions, for their long, dull, and unvaried performances. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 261 

For such is our frailty at best, that we need all the wise 
precautions imaginable to be used to keep our minds vigor- 
ous, wakeful, and attentive, both by a variety of devo- 
tions and of bodily worship, which is the true intent of all 
that beautiful variety wherewith our worship is attended, and 
which, in proportion as it attains those ends, may be truly 
styled the beauty of holiness. ^ 

An experience of nearly forty years had strength- 
ened his love for these forms and given him an oppor- 
tmiity to test their value. From time to time he had 
seen in them fresh beauties, and the testimony which 
he bore to their excellence, in the evening of his days, 
was a proof that no trials, and hatreds, and adversities, 
had made him regret the step which he took when he 
broke away from the popular faith of New England. 
He felt that he was one in sympathy and fellowship 
with a great branch of the Church universal. " In the 
use of the Liturgy," said he, " I am offering up not 
the devotions of this or that assembly only, much less 
of this or that particular person or minister, but the 
prayers and praises of the whole English Church and 
nation, enjoined by lawful authority, and which every 
assembly is jointly offering up at the same time. And 
moreover, that I find I am worshipping God accord- 
ing to the ancient Scripture method, wherein it was 
the manner for all the people to lift up their voice 
with one accord, not only in singing, but in saying 
their devotions." 

The sermon from which these portions are taken 
is closed with an earnest appeal to churchmen to 
adorn the religion they professed, by the " exemplary 
holiness" of their behavior. "We have lately had," 
are his words, " an adversary [Mr. Noah Hobart] who 

1 Pages 20-22. 



262 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

pretends to show as an argument against us, that 
where the Church prevails, all Tnanner of wickedness 
prevails."" It was a groundless and abusive reproach, 
and he would have them confute it by living lives 
answerable to the mighty obligations their worship 
laid them under. A wicked churchman, in his judg- 
ment, was the most inexcusable of all creatures. 
Much as he loved the Liturgy, he was far more desir- 
ous that they who adopted it should be true to its 
teachings, and firmly resolved to bring forth those 
fruits of holiness whereby our Heavenly Father may 
be glorified. 

Since the death of his wife and daughter, he had 
lived very much alone, and been little concerned 
about his domestic affairs. But they appeared to be 
suffering at this time " for want of a careful and dis- 
interested housekeeper," and he began to turn over 
in his mind what he had thought of before, but dis- 
missed without coming to a final decision. The fol- 
lowing letter to his son will explain his views and 
feelings in regard to a second marriage : — 

K. C, N. Y., Fehruanj 16, 1761. 

Dearest Son, — We cannot be sufiiciently thankful that 
our health is so graciously continued, both yours and mine. 
Mine, I think, was never better, notwithstanding my confine- 
ment. For exercise I run frequently up garret, besides walk- 
ing a great deal the length of my two rooms, by which I 
tire myself at least once a day ; which with five recitations 
(lectures we call them), two of which are equal to two ser- 
mons, seem exercise enough to answer the end. Indeed, I 
am obliged to live very laboriously. 

I thank you for explaining yourself so fully on the subject 
I mentioned, and with so much tenderness and filial affection, 
and I may add with much propriety and accuracy, consider- 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 263 

ing your hurry and interruption. I was always with you, 
against second matches, especially in advanced years, for the 
reason you mention, on which account I bless myself a 
thousand times that I came oft" so well from my former views, 
which gave me great uneasiness on your account ; and be 
sure I should never have thought of such a thing again, 
but in the present case, which can scarce possibly be at- 
tended with those ill consequences. Indeed, it seems very 
ridiculous, and I am really ashamed of the thoughts of mat- 
rimony at this time of day ; but in truth it seems so doleful 
in old age to be destitute of a contemporary companion, that 
I am almost apt to think a man never wants one more, and 
that if he has a good one in his younger years, there is noth- 
ing in life he needs more earnestly to pray for than her 
continuance to the last. On these accounts, I don't know 
(since you approve of it, and I cannot for two or three years 
at least if I live, leave this station) but that I had best think 
of it in earnest. I should hardly come this spring, if it 
were not on this account, but if my life and health continue, 
I believe I shall go about the middle of May, if there is 
hke to be an opportunity, or perhaps not till June, accord- 
ing as Commencement is. I doubt the difficulty will be to 
have a vessel ready immediately after Commencement. 

I have got " Smollett," and with you do not quite like 
him. I fear he has no religion. Methinks he writes some- 
times with a fleer. I am told he has written so freely about 
Lord Anson that he has prosecuted him and put him in jail. 
I believe there is but one volume of the continuation of it 
published. I shall send it when there is opportunity. I 
had another volume of sermons for a vehicle to this letter. 
With my love to Mrs. Beach and to you all, I remain. 
Your most affectionate father and friend, 

S. JOHKSON. 

The practice of interchanging thoughts on the sub- 
ject of their readings had been observed for a long 
time, and must have been as pleasant as it was profit- 



264 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

able. Scarcely any new and important work upon 
theology, history, philosophy, or literature, made its 
appearance in England, which the father did not 
speedily procure, and possess himself of its contents 
before sending it to his son. In this way they bene- 
fited each other, and sharpened their moral and crit- 
ical judgments. It was a period when the books 
published, especially those commanding attention, 
were not so numerous but that a diligent reader could 
easily find time to peruse them and weigh well their 
merits and tendencies. Johnson had a great dislike 
for any author who seemed to sneer at the Christian 
religion. He had no patience with infidels and scofi- 
ers, and believed Christianity to be not only the 
anchor of the soul and the safeguard of society, but 
the sublimest philosophy. 

This feeling will account for his distrust of Smollett. 
" Infidelity " said Bishop Watson, in his reply to 
Thomas Paine, " is a rank weed, it threatens to over- 
spread the land ; its root is principally fixed amongst 
the great and opulent, — but you are endeavoring to 
extend the malignity of its poison through all the 
classes of the community." -^ It was a fear of this kind 
which made Johnson so careful to watch against the 
contaminating influence of irreligion. He would 
have the rising generation, — the merchants, manu- 
facturers, and tradesmen of the British realm, pre- 
served from the delusions of unbelief, and continued 
in that faith which is the foundation of happiness in 
this world, and of the hope of glory in another. 

1 Apology f 07' the Bible, p. 176, American Ed. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 266 



CHAPTER XL 

FOURTH COMMENCEMENT ; SECOND MAHKIAGE ; BENEFACTIONS TO 
THE COLLEGE; DIl. JAY AUTIIOUIZED TO MAKE COLLECTIONS 
IN ENGLAND; ARRIVAL OF REV. MYLES COOPER; RELIGIOUS 
CONTROVERSY ; AND FOREIGN OOURKSrONDENCE. 

A. D. 1761-1763. 

At the fourth Commencement of King's College, 
which was held June 3, 1761, the first Bachelors pro- 
ceeded to their second deii-ree. Several <»:ra(luates of 
other collei!;es were admitted at the same time to a 
like honor, and pains were taken to make friends for 
the institution among Episcopalians outside of New 
York. Johnson was now more hopeful than ever of 
its growth, and felt that its great want was the want 
of additional funds to continue its operations and ex- 
tend the course of instruction. He needed both a 
tutor and a professor to aid him in his labors, and his 
correspondence with the Archbishop of Canterbury 
had led him to anticipate tliat one or the other might 
ere long come from England, and be found fit event- 
ually to succeed to his responsibilities. 

Lumediately after this fourth Commencement, he 
proceeded to Stratford in a sailing vessel, and was 
there married on the 18th of June to Mrs. Sarah 
Beach, widow of his old friend and parishioner, Wil- 
liam Beach, and mother of his son's wife. At the 
close of the vacation, he embarked with her for New 
York, and earnestly applied himself again to his 



266 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

duties in the College. Failing to procure assistance 
from England, the Governors appointed Mr. Robert 
Harpur, a gentleman who had been educated at the 
University of Glasgow, and was well qualified to be 
Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, 
and with his help, he had an easier time than in the 
preceding year, and the classes were more thoroughly 
instructed. Nothing occurred to disturb the even 
tenor of his course during; the ensuina: winter. His 
domestic affairs were every way agreeable, and he 
wrote his son in October that he " never was happier 
in his life than now." What added greatly to his pleas- 
ure, as he himself said, was : " That Providence has 
sent us a good teacher of Mathematics and Experi- 
ments from Ireland, bred at Glasgow," and the scholars 
were so charmed with him that he could not refrain 
from expressing his belief that the Institution was 
thus to receive a fresh impulse. 

The increase of its funds was another stimulus to 
its prosperity. Those obtained to complete the build- 
ing and provide for immediate necessities were al- 
ready exhausted, and the Governors were beginning 
to spend a portion of their capital to carry on the 
Institution. Besides the sums early secured, and the 
donation from the venerable Society of five hundred 
pounds, a benevolent gentleman, Mr. Joseph Mur- 
ray, had bequeathed his estate to the College, 
amounting to six or seven thousand pounds. But 
more was needed, and Dr. Johnson renewed his pro- 
posal to solicit a collection in England, and prepared 
the way for it by writing to his friends and asking 
their good offices. In a letter to the Archbishop of 
Canterbury dated January 6, 1762, after referring to 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 267 

his agency in procuring a suitable person for vice- 
president and to succeed him in case of his decease 
or resignation, he said, " Notwithstanding the excep- 
tion made to his age, and the uncertainty whether 
he will answer as a preacher, he is desired, if he is 
willing, to come upon the terms, and with the views 
mentioned in our letters to your Grace. But as we 
have already been providentially provided for with 
an ingenious young gentleman, one Mr. Harpur, bred 
at Glasgow, who does very well in teaching Mathe- 
matics and Experimental Philosophy, Mr. Cooper 
will not need to bring one with him for that pur- 
pose. But the great difficulty is how to support 
these salaries which our stock cannot long do, un- 
less we can by some means get an addition to it, and 
we see no way for this but by getting forward a sub- 
scription in England, and we have not yet any one 
here to go home on purpose to solicit one. So that 
unless some public spirited gentleman there would 
be so good as to undertake it, I see not what to do, 
though indeed I cannot excuse ourselves of too much 
indolence and inattention to the interests of the 
College." 

A month before this he had written to Mr. Home 
of Oxford, afterwards Bishop of Norwich, and author 
of the " Commentary on the Psalms," and sent the 
letter by a graduate of Yale College who went to 
England, recommended to the Society and the Bishop 
of London as a worthy candidate for Holy Orders and 
a Mission. After thanking him for the kindness he 
had shown to his deceased son, and mentioning fa- 
vorably what he was pleased to call his " admirable 
state of the case between Sir Isaac and Mr. Hutchin- 
son," Johnson said : — 



268 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

I thought I would, though thus late, presume to trouble 
you with a few lines, to express my earnest wishes that some 
of you (and I hope you are about it), would give the world 
an entire methodical system of that sacred philosophy and 
theology in the same candid way to the best advantage. I 
say this because, though Mr. Hutchinson's Discourses, on the 
Hebrew Scriptures, are admirable, yet his way of writing is 
obscure and disagreeable, which together with his asperity 
of temper and expression, has been I believe, the chief, if 
not the only reason that his extraordinary works have been 
no more read and considered and so generally thrown by 
with contempt in this conceited and inattentive age. May I 
not hope that this is doing and will soon be done. 

I have written several times to good Mr. Berkeley, but 
whether my letters or his miscarry, or his leaving Oxford 
be the occasion, I have heard nothing from him these five 
years. If you ever see or correspond with him please to give 
my most affectionate service to him. 

I have heard a rumor that the Rev. Dr. Patten has lately 
published some excellent performance, but cannot hear what 
it is. I shall be much obliged to you to make my humblest 
compliments acceptable to him, whose excellent sermons as 
well as yours are much admired here. 

It is uncertain whether the worthy youth, Mr. Treadwell, 
who carries this letter, will see Oxford. If he should I beg 
your kind notice of him. My College, I thank God, is now 
in a pretty flourishing condition, and the building finished, 
only we want a fund to support sufiicient officers. 

I am. Reverend Sir, with great esteem. 

Your most affectionate obliged humble servant, 

S. J. 

He dispatched a brief note to his old friend Dr. 
Astry by the same gentleman, " who," he said, " will 
give you some account of the Church and of my Col- 
lege, and my labors and hopeful prospect of laying a 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 269 

good foiuiclation for posterity. I pray, God be your 
staff, your support and your comfort in your declining 
years, and your exceeding great reward in a better 
world," 

Letters of this sort served as an introduction to 
the movement which was in contemplation. An op- 
portunity soon offered of soliciting subscriptions in 
England through the agency of Dr. James Jay ; and 
the President of the College urged the Governors to 
accept his services and furnish him not only with the 
requisite authority, but with suitable addresses to the 
king, the two Archbishops, the Universities of Oxford 
and Cambridge, and the Society for the Propagation 
of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. All seemed ready to 
acquiesce in the proposal, and Dr. Jay was formally 
appointed ; and took his departure from New York on 
the 12th of May, 1762. Of the letters and addresses 
put into his hand, which were all prepared by John- 
son, it will be enough to select the one written to 
Archbishop Seeker : — 

To THE Most IIev. Father in God, Thomas, Lord Archbishop of 
Canterbury. 

May it please your G-race^ — Your Grace is well acquainted 
\nt\\ the labors and difficulties under which we have strug- 
gled in founding our College and carrying it on hitherto ; 
and has been informed that we have erected an elegant 
building of one hundred eighty feet in length by thirty in 
width and tlu-ee stories in height, which is now just finished 
and designed for one side of a quadrangle to be completed 
as we shall be enabled. • But as we are not yet able to carry 
it any farther without assistance, nor have we a sufficient 
fund to support the necessary ofiicers — the Master, Profes- 
sors, and Tutors, — we are therefore constrained to beg the 



270 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

charitable contributions of such public spirited gentlemen as 
are generously disposed to promote so good a work, and have 
empowered the bearer hereof, Dr. James Jay of this city, 
who is an ingenious young gentleman, and a graduated phy- 
sician of the University of Edinburgh, to ask and receive 
such benefactions as shall be contributed to this important 
undertaking. 

And as your Grace is the first member of our corporation 
and has given abundant demonstration of your delight in 
doing good offices, and especially to this College, for which 
we are inexpressibly thankful, we humbly beg leave to rec- 
ommend him to your Grace, and entreat you in addition 
to your former goodness that you will give him your best 
advice and direction for his carrying on a solicitation for 
benefactions ; and if you think proper, that you will intro- 
duce him, or procure him introduced to our most gracious 
Sovereign for his favor ; and also that you will be pleased to 
recommend him to his Grace, the Lord Archbishop of York 
and the Bishop of London, or any other of the nobility, 
clergy, or gentry as your Grace shall judge most expedient. 
In doing which you will unspeakably oblige, may it please 
your Grace, Your Grace's, etc. 

On bis arrival in England, Dr. Jay found a com- 
petitor for British charities in the Rev. Dr. Smith, 
Provost of the College in Philadelphia. He had pre- 
ceded him to London and was engaged in soliciting 
subscriptions for his own institution. The Archbishop, 
who had warmly espoused the cause of King's Col- 
lege, feeling that separate collections at the same 
time would injure the claims of each, thought it would 
be best to unite them, and apply to the king for a 
brief to go through the kingdom in favor of both. 
This was accordingly done, and the proceeds were di- 
vided equally between the two institutions, except that 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSOX. 271 

a donation from his Majesty of six hundred pounds to 
the College in New York was adjudged to be not in- 
cluded in the general collection. The joint contri- 
butions yielded to King's College the net sum of 
nearly six thousand pounds sterling, which, with the 
legacy of Mr. Murray and other donations, constituted 
for the time a sufficient endowment. The son of 
Bishop Berkeley generously contributed ten guineas, 
and in answering Johnson's letter by Dr. Jay, said, 
" It gave great delight to my worthy mother, now at 
my house, to hear that you enjoyed your health and 
spirits; she bears a most sincere good will to that 
quarter of the world where your acquaintance with 
her took its rise." 

The Governors were now enabled to furnish the 
assistance which had long been desired, and the Rev. 
Myles Cooper, the young Oxford graduate, whom the 
Archbishop had recommended as being well qualified 
to take part in the management of the College, 
came over to this country in the autumn of 1762, 
and was welcomed by the President, and immediately 
appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy. He proved 
equal to the duties of the position, in spite of the 
objection which *had been raised against him that he 
was too young ; and Johnson looked forward with sat- 
isfaction to the day when he himself would be allowed 
to retire. He worked zealously with his new officer, 
and sought in judicious ways to prepare him for the 
assumption of his own responsibilities, not expect- 
ing, however, that a Providential event would lead 
him so soon to sever his connection with the College. 

Absorbed as he was at this time in matters of 
education, he did not forget the Church, or cease to 



272 . LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

take a lively interest in the prosperity of the parishes 
in his native colony. He longed to see a better and 
more learned clergy ; and in a letter to his son who 
had referred to the subject, he said, December, 1762, 
" What you lament has occasioned in me many a sigh. 
But how to remedy it is the difficulty. I wish those 
we have, had better abilities, more inclination to books 
and more zeal ; and if I am allowed to come again 
among you, I intend to try to animate them, and hope 
to do some good. But I doubt poverty is one chief 
remora, which I cannot remedy. But we must, as 
you say, take more care to have good candidates if 
we can get them, and not recommend poor ones. I 
hope you may have some good influence in getting a 
right choice for New Haven, which is of much impor- 
tance. We have good hands here, Chandler and young 
Seabury, but I can't get them to write, nor indeed do 
they know enough of some affairs for this business, 
but might be informed. We must, as you say, leave it 
with God Almighty, with whom is the residue of the 
Spirit, to raise up instruments to defend His Church 
under His protection, and I hope and trust He will 
not desert it." 

He had in his mind, while writing thus to his son, a 
pamphlet which had recently been published anony- 
mously, and circulated to the injury of the Church of 
England, especially in Massachusetts and Connecticut, 
and to which the Archbishop of Canterbury had 
called his attention, and desired that it might be an- 
swered. Johnson fixed upon the Missionary at New- 
town as the most competent person to do this, and 
wrote again to his son, " I shall be very sorry if Mr. 
Beach does not answer that base pamphlet. Tell Mr. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 273 

Winslow, let the clergy give him no rest till he is 
persuaded. I would undertake it myself rather than 
fail, if writing were not so tedious to me. I fear how 
the Church will do when her old champions are gone. 
If he fails I know of none anj^where equal to it. I 
knew nothing before of that Boston act. I wonder 
with the Archbishop none of the Church's friends 
had been earlier in their notice." 

It was a time of sharp theological controversy. The 
bitter hostility of the Independents to the introduc- 
tion of Bishops into this country, and to the work of 
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, was 
the origin of the pamphlet, and a few of the Episcopal 
clergy, in view of its ironical character, were inclined 
to regard it as unworthy of the least attention. The 
younger Johnson, in a letter to his father, dated Jan- 
uary 7, 1763, said : " Mr. Beach, I am now assured, 
is writing, as he has sent to me to procure an account 
of the settlements and salaries of some of the Dissent- 
ing ministers ; and I hope with you, he will do it well. 
I have written him to encourage the thing and to 
suggest some few things. Mr. Caner, it seems by a 
letter to Mr. Winslow, thinks the piece too low and 
scandalous to answer ; but I cannot agree with him. 
As our enemies avail themselves so much of it, I am 
not content to let it pass." 

The answer was prepared and. submitted to the ex- 
amination of Dr. Johnson through his son, into whose 
hands the manuscript first came, and he, after running 
it over, wrote to his ftither : " I durst not pronounce 
upon it from this hasty reading, and am sorry I have 
not more time to consider it, but hope you and Mr. 
Cooper and others there will consider it carefully be- 



274 • LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

fore it is published. I fear it is too severe in some 
expressions, though they deserve it all." With a few 
words referring to his own suggestions, he added, 
" Perhaps it would have been well if Mr. Beach had 
not so often mentioned Messrs. Hobart and Dickinson 
as the authors of the pamphlet, as it is very uncertain 
who they were,^ though I believe he is right, that all 
their clergy are pleased with it. You will critically 
examine the whole. Notwithstanding the opinion of 
Mr. Caner, Mr. Winslow, etc., an answer must be pub- 
lished ; I think I every day see more and more occa- 
sion for it." 

Dr. Johnson had determined by this time, to retire 
from his position in New York, and was shaping his 
plans with reference to such a step. There was some 
prospect that Mr. Winslow might be transferred to an- 
other station, and an opportunity given for restoring 
him to his old parish. But if this should not be effected, 
his son wrote him to have no anxiety about his tem- 
poral concerns. " Your determination," said he, ^' to 
leave the conduct of your affairs to me is kind and does 
me honor, but it is too much, as I am very liable to 
mistake. Only be assured that you will always have 
my best judgment, and that I shall never think any- 
thing I can do a burden, or too much to render your 

1 The author was Mr. Noah Welles, a Congregational divine in Stamford, Ct. 
The irony extended through 47 octavo pages, and justified Johnson in using the ex- 
pression " base pamphlet." The title page ran thus: " The Real Advantages which 
ministers and people may enjoj', especially in the Colonies, by conforming to the 
Church of England ; faithfully considered and impartially represented, in a Letter to 
a young Gentleman, printed in the year 1762." It opened with these words: " I re- 
ceived your's by the worthy Mr. , in which you inform me that pursuant to 

my advice, you went to Church on Christinas Day, and was so greatly pleased with 
our worship that you have some thoughts of conforming, and going home for orders 
next spring. You maj be sure this gave me the greatest satisfaction, as I am firmly 
attached to the Apostolic Church of England, that great bulwarh of the Eeforma- 
tim." 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, 275 

life comfortable. I know not why it is not equally a 
duty, at least to provide for parents as for children. 
But use your own judgment (of which we have both 
had so long and so good experience) with mine for the 
best means to attain that end. Be not concerned for 
me or mine so as to give yourself any uneasiness ; if 
I or they have less fortune, it may be less tem23ta- 
tion to go astray, and redoubled diligence may make 
amends for it. Those who are not content to be 
diligent have no title to the goods of fortune, and 
those who are really so, will very seldom want a com- 
petency. If you can stay there with ease, satisfac- 
tion, honor, and credit I can be content ; if not, do not 
hesitate to retire, whatever becomes of every other 
consideration, for all others are inferior to them. 
Providence will not desert us." 

A domestic affliction prevented him from giving 
much attention to Mr. Beach's pamphlet before its 
publication ; and soon the minds of Churchmen were 
turned to the controversy as renewed and carried on 
in Boston. In 1763 appeared a vindication of the 
Society by the Rev. East Apthorp, entitled " Con- 
siderations on the Institution and Conduct of the So- 
ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
Parts," to which a Dissenting divine. Dr. Jonathan 
Mayhew, replied in a much thicker pamphlet, and 
contended that the managers were either deceived by 
the representations of their Missionaries, or were gov- 
erned more by a regard to Episcopacy than to the 
interests of true religion. Replies and rejoinders fol- 
lowed, and the republication in England of Dr. May- 
hew' s " Observations on the Charter and Conduct of 
the Society," led the Archbishop of Canterbury to 



276 LIFE AND COREESPONDENCE 

prepare an answer and print it that the truth might 
be known to the British pubhc. The following letters, 
though anticipating a little the chronological order of 
events, will let the reader into a pretty full history 
of the whole controversy, as well as shed some light 
on the affair of American Bishops : — 

Good De. Johnson", — I heartily thank you for your let- 
ter of August 10, particularly for the concern Avhicli you ex- 
press about my health. It is frequently disordered ; but I 
can for the most part pay some attention to business. When 
I fail, as I am now within a few days of seventy, an abler 
person in all respects, I hope, will succeed me. 

Mr. Beach's book is not come to my hands ; I wish it had 
received your corrections. I am as desirous that your an- 
swer to Dr. Mayhew should be published, as I can be with- 
out having seen it ; because I dare say it is written with the 
temper which I told you I wished Mr. Beach might preserve. 
But indeed I fear the world will think we have settled too 
many missions in New England and New York ; and there- 
fore it may be best, not absolutely to justify, but to excuse 
ourselves in that respect, as prevailed on by entreaties hard to 
be resisted, as having many applications, and resolved to be 
hereafter more sparing in the admission of them, instead of 
making it our business to Episcopize New England, as Dr. 
Mayhew expresses himself. Our adversaries may be asked 
whether they have not made as great mistakes in some points, 
as we in this ; and whether bitter invectives against them 
would not be unchristian. There was a company incorpor- 
porated by Car. 2, in 1661, for Propagating the Grospel 
amongst the heathen nations of New England and the adjacent 
parts:, which still subsists, and the affairs of it are managed 
by the Dissenters. Queen Anne, in 1709, incorporated The 
Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge, 
and empowered them to propagate it not only there, but in 
Popish and infidel parts of the ivorld. - Accordingly they had 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 277 

correspondents and Missionaries in New England above thirty 
years ago ;. and in Long Island, Pennsylvania, North Caro- 
lina, and Georgia above twenty years ago ; and probably they 
have still. It may be useful to inquire, whether these two 
Societies have observed their charters better than ours hath. 
If not, their friends should think and speak mildly of us. 
The new projected Society at Boston is about sinking itself 
into the latter of these, as I am informed. I know nothing 
of Dr. Barclay's " Defence agamst Smith," nor of Aplin ; pos- 
sibly this last word was a slip of your pen for Apthorp. 

What will be done about Bishops, I cannot guess. Appli- 
cation for them was made to Lord Egremont, who promised 
to consult with the other ministers, but died without making 
any report from them. His successor, Lord Halifax, is a 
friend to the scheme ; but I doubt, whether in the present 
weak state of the ministry, he will dare to meddle with what 
will certainly raise opposition. I believe very little is done 
or doing yet toward the settlement of America ; and I know 
not what disposition will be made of the lands belonging to 
the Popish clergy in the conquered provinces. 

I am very glad to hear the money is paid to Mr. Charlton. 
I have heard nothing of any design of a Degree for Mr. Chan- 
dler, but from you. If any person here is engaged in it, I 
should know, that we may act in concert. But I think we 
should have a more formal recommendation of him from 
you and Dr. Barclay, and any other principal persons, clergy 
or laity. 

Your account of Mr. Cooper gives me great pleasvire. In 
a late letter to me, he expresses good hopes about the Col- 
lege ; but complains of some disappointment in regard to his 
income, which I do not distinctly understand. I have writ- 
ten to him, to recommend patience ; and to Dr. Barclay, to 
desire that the Governors will be as kind to him as with pro- 
priety they can. Mr. Caner hath sent over one Mr. Frink 
for a new mission at Rutland, about sixty miles from Boston, 
without any previous mention of the matter to the Society, 
which is irregular ; and I do not think we shall appoint him to 



278 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

it ; perhaps to some vacant old one we may, if such there be. 
The Mission of Braintree is offered to Mr. Winslow, in order 
to make room for you at Stratford. Whether it be wortli 
his acceptance I know not. But the Society are very desir- 
ous of restoring you to your old station ; and if this proposal 
doth not succeed, they will be glad to have any other method 
pointed out to them. 

Since I wrote thus far, the Society hath appointed Mr. 
Frink Missionary at Augusta. It seems he was inoculated 
a few days before. I hope he will get safe through the dis- 
temper. 

God bless you, good Dr. Johnson, and His Church in your 
parts. I am, with much esteem, 

Your loving brother, 

Tho. Cant. 

Lambeth, September 28, 1763. 

Answer : — 

December 20, 1763. 
May it please youe, Geace, — I humbly ask your 
Grace's pardon for writing so soon again, which I hope you 
will excuse, as I should be extremely wanting in my duty to 
your Grace, if I did not most gratefully acknowledge your 
very kind letter of September 28, which I lately received. I 
am very glad and thank God that your health is not so much 
impaired as to forbid your giving some attention to business, 
and I earnestly pray that it may be yet again confirmed and 
lengthened out to the utmost, and the rather as I am ex- 
tremely afraid that in these times no gentleman can be 
found that will go near to make good your Grace's ground. 
I am sm^prised Mr. Beach's book is not come to your hands ; 
I sent a copy which was promised me to be sent you from 
Boston seven months ago ; and I have again urged it, and 
Aplin's (a lawyer), for so is his name. Mr. Canor (as it is 
privately said) has made, I think, a pretty good answer to 
Mayhew, with which mine, such as it is, is printed ; but I 
hear Mayhew has replied already, still in his own way. Mr. ■ 
Caner has remarked upon these Societies much as your 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 279 

Grace mentions. I trust it will soon come to you, and that 
you will not dislike it. 

Did our benefactors know the real state of things m New 
England, they would allow that missionaries are as much 
needed here as in other parts of America. The wildest 
notions are propagated here both on the side of enthusiasm 
and infidelity ; but I wish to God more could be done there 
as well as here. Dr. Barclay's Defense was sent to the So- 
ciety, and I have advised him to send your Grace a copy, 
and also to write in behalf of Mr. Chandler, whose char- 
acter truly is that of a most faithful Missionary, and one that 
hath made much proficiency in learning, and especially in 
divinity. I know of none so much to my mind that loves 
books, and reads so much as he. It would be for the honor 
and interest of the Church and religion, if there were at 
least one in each province of that degree, and he a Com- 
missary. I wish Mr. Caner had a D. D. degree, who 
well deserves it, and the rather as there is none in that 
province now but Dr. Cutler, who has done. By a letter 
lately from Mr. Cooper it appears that the Governors of 
the College have enlarged his salary to his content. 

It is truly a miserable thing, my Lord, that we no sooner 
leave fighting our neighbors, the French, but we must 
fall to quarrelling among ourselves. I fear the present 
state of our ministry is indeed very feeble ; so that I doubt 
we must, after all our hopes, lose the present juncture also 
for gaining the point we have long had so much at heart, 
and I believe must never expect another. Is there then 
nothing more that can be done either for obtaining Bishops 
or demolishing these pernicious charter governments, and 
reducing them all to one form in immediate dependence on 
the king ? I cannot help calling them pernicious, for they 
are indeed so as well for the best good of the people them- 
selves as for the interests of true religion. I would hope 
Providence may somehow bring it about that things may be 
compromised respecting the ministry, and would it not now 
be a proper juncture for some such general address from 



280 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

the provinces here to the Kmg as I once mentioned to your 
Grace ? or is there not probability enough of success left 
with regard to both Bishops and government to make it 
worth while for a gentleman or two, who I believe might be 
procured to go from hence for the purpose of gaining these 
points ? for I doubt nothing mil do without solicitation from 
hence. I should be greatly obliged to your Grace for your 
opinion and direction in respect to these things as soon as 
may be. It is indeed too much to trouble your Grace with 
these affairs in your present infirm state. I therefore hum- 
bly beg your pardon that I am thus importunate. I re- 
m'ember you once mentioned his Grace of York as having 
extraordinary talents for business ; could not he be engaged 
to be active in these affairs ? I am greatly obliged to the 
Society that they are very desirous to restore me to this 
station. Mr. Winslow is gone to Braintree, to see whether 
it^will do for him to accept it, and I am prone to think he 
will. If he does I shall do my best, but I shall soon need 
some assistance. 

I am, with the greatest veneration, etc., 

S. J. 

The reply of Archbishop Seeker to this letter gives 
the reason for his own share in the controversy, and 
suggests a conciliatory course to attain the great ob- 
ject in view. 

Good De. Johnson, — Since my last of September 28, 
1763, I have been favored with two letters from you, dated 
Ooctober 20, and December 20. The first did not seem to 
require an immediate answer, and about the time that I 
received the second, the gout seized both my hands and 
both my feet. It made several attacks on my right hand, 
and disabled me from making almost any use of it for two 
or three months. I am now, God be thanked, jiearly as 
well as usual, and have received all the pamphlets which 
were designed for me from America. V/hen Dr. Mayhew's 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 281 

" Observations," etc., were reprinted here, it was thought 
necessary that an answer to them should also be printed 
here ; which was done before the " Candid Examination, and 
Letter to a Friend," came to my hands. An hundred copies 
of the answer were sent by the Society to the Colonies, 
and I hope you have had one of them. It was believed 
that they would do no harm amongst you, and might do 
some good, though the " Candid Examination," etc., was un- 
doubtedly sufficient for your part of the world. If you see 
any mistakes in the Answer, or hear of any objections to 
any part of it, that seem to be material, be pleased to 
send me an account of them, with such remarks as you 
think proper. I have Dr. Mayhew's " Defence of his Ob- 
servations." He manifests the same spirit as before, and 
runs out into many things of little consequence to the So- 
ciety. The case of Mr. Price and Mr. Barrett, page 125, 
etc., is new to me ; and if it be truly represented, the for- 
mer seems to have been blamable. If any reply is made, I 
hope it will be short and cool. Some angry Dissenter hath, 
published a pamphlet, entitled, " The Claims of the Church 
of England Seriously Considered, in a letter to the author 
of the Answer to Dr. Mayhew." There is but little in it 
relative to the Society, and nothing that requires confutation. 
The affair of American Bishops continues in suspense. 
Lord Willoughby of Parham, the only English Dissenting 
Peer, and Dr. Chandler,^ have declared, after our scheme was 
fully laid before them, that they saw no objection against it. 
The Duke of Bedford, Lord President, hath given a calm 
and favorable hearing to it, hath desired it may be reduced 
into writing, and promised to consult about it with the other 
ministers at his first leisure. Indeed, I see not how Prot- 
estant Bishops can decently be refused us, as in all probabil- 
ity a Popish one will be allowed, by connivance at least, in 
Canada. The Ecclesiastical settlement of that country is 
not made yet, but is under consideration, and I hope will 
be a reasonable and satisfactory one. Four clergymen will 

1 Samuel Chandler, a Presbyterian divine of Loudon. 



282 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

be appointed for Florida, with salaries of XlOO each, and 
four school-masters with £25 each; and the Society have 
been desired to provide them. This I consider as a good 
omen ; yet much will depend on various circumstances, and 
particularly on the opinion, or persuasion concerning the 
opinion of the Americans, both Dissenters and Churchmen. 

The Bishop of London died last week ; poor man, he was 
every way unequal to that station. His successor, Dr. Ter- 
rick, is a sensible and good tempered man, greatly esteemed 
as a preacher, and personally liked by the king, as well as 
favored by the ministry. Therefore I hope he will both have 
considerable influence, and use it well. He was Residentiary 
of St. Paul's Church, when I was made Dean. I had no ac- 
quaintance with him before, but we have been very good 
friends ever since ; and I doubt not but we shall remain 
such, and consult together about American affairs. 

We must not run the risk of increasing the outcry against 
the Society ; especially in the present crisis, and so perhaps 
lose an opportunity of settling Bishops in our Colonies, by 
establishing two or three new Missions in New England. 
Our affairs are not to be carried on with a high hand, but 
our success, if we do succeed, must arise from conciliating 
the minds of men. And this ought to be labored very dili- 
gently abroad as well as at home. 

The Society hath agreed, in pursuance of a proposal made 
by Dr. Smith, to establish a proper number of correspond- 
ing Societies, with an agent or president for each of them ; 
to give information and advice concerning all needful af- 
fairs, and act for the Society in all requisite cases. But 
this general scheme cannot be brought into due form for 
execution, till we see whether Bishops can be obtained and 
how many. 

The Archbishop of York is very active in our business, as 
well as able. He hath brought the estate of Codrington 
College out of a most lamentable condition into a very 
hopeful one, and he hath done a great deal with the min- 
isters in our ecclesiastical concerns. But these, and partic- 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 283 

ularly what relates to Bishops, must be managed in a quiet, 
private manner. Were solicitors to be sent over prema- 
turely from America for Bishops, there would come also so- 
Hcitors against them ; a flame would be raised, and we should 
never carry our point. Whenever an application from them 
is really wanted and become seasonable, be assured that you 
will have immediate notice. 

I have heard nothing yet of Dr. Barclay's Defence ; nor 
hath he mentioned to me the propriety of a Degree for Mr. 
Chandler, though I had a letter from him, dated January 
20. I desire to know what College degree Mr. Chandler 
hath, and of what standing he is in that College ; and the 
same of Mr. Caner. 

Concerning the other particulars in your letters, I pre- 
sume the Secretary hath written to you ; and therefore I 
shall only add that I heartily pray God to give you every 
blessing needful for you, and earnestly desire your prayers in 
return for Your loving brother, 

Tho. Cant. 

Lambeth, May 22, 1764. 

These letters show how much Seeker relied upon 
the judgment of Johnson to guide him in his efforts 
for the Church in the American Colonies. A wide 
ocean rolled between them and there was often op- 
portunity for ministerial crises and important politi- 
cal events before they could interchange views. But 
they kept each other well posted, and if Johnson 
could not discern the wisdom of the state policy 
which hemmed in the zeal of his "loving brother," 
he would not cease to plead for the Episcopacy in 
America, and to hope that it might be secured before 
his probation ended. 

He had written to Mr. Apthorp very freely on this 
and other subjects growing out of the controversy 
with Dr. Mayhew, and among the letters which he 



284 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

received in reply was one that spoke of the influence 
which his son might have, if employed to present the 
application for Bishops. The letter should be given 
in full for the information it contains : — 

Cambridge, May 7, 1764. 

Reverend and good Sir, — I have before me two of 
your favors, for which I make my earliest acknowledgments. 
The great affliction of our family in the death of Mrs. 
Wheelwright, who was extremely dear to us all, has hardly 
given me leisure or spirits, for some time past, to attend to 
any but the most necessary business. 

I had a long conversation with Mr. Bennet on his affair. 
His public spirit leads him to project things that I fear can- 
not be effected, for want of the same spirit among those who 
alone can execute them. I have however undertaken to do 
all in my power ; which is, to solicit our Governor and Lieu- 
tenant-governor to patronize him, and to receive four Indian, 
youths at Boston, and in England. I shall use the influ- 
ence of my friends with the Society to fix Mr. Bennet on 
their list, and to obtain, if possible, the appointment of two 
missionaries for the Mohawks. I hope something was done 
for him at a meeting of the Episcopal Society in Boston, to 
whom I recommended the • support of his good undertaking. 
He proposes to make me another visit in a fortnight, 
when everything that can be done at Boston will be at- 
tempted. 

The affair of soliciting the settlement of Bishops among 
us, is, I perceive, a matter of too great consequence and 
difficulty for me to engage in singly. What I wrote so 
hastily was rather expressive of my good will than of my set- 
tled thoughts. I soon after received a permission from the 
Society, and an invitation from my friends to make a voyage 
to England, which I hope to accomplish, by God's blessing, 
this year. I shall gladly exert myself in promoting that 
great national measure you speak of, as far as shall be 
proper for me. And as the subject is of much importance* 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSOK 285 

I will write my thoughts to you with freedom and simplicity. 
It is an affair that wovild be solicited by a layman with less 
aversion and opposition than by a clergyman. And I believe 
there can hardly be a properer person employed than Mr. 
Jolmson, whom 1 heartily wish well recovered of the small- 
pox. If he should engage in that service, I think his in- 
structions from hence ought to be of weight and authority. 
If he was himself, in person, to collect the sense of the prin- 
cipal governments, not only of the clergy, but of the Gov- 
ernors and persons of property and character among the 
laity, it might have a good effect. But I think the letters 
you mention, signed by a few of the clergy in each province, 
would be ineffectual. If the whole application both here 
and in England was conducted with firmness, spirit and 
dignity, I am apt to think it would succeed, as the Arch- 
bishop, and (it is said) the King himself approves of it. My 
opinion is confirmed by an answer to Dr. Mayhew pub- 
lished in London last winter, and wrote with admirable 
strength and temper. But this I suppose you have seen. 

I know nothing of the article of news relating to Dr. 
Tucker of Bristol ; nor do I think it is at all to be depended 
on. 

What I write on this subject is with the most entire con- 
fidence in your wisdom to suppress any thoughts which you 
may not approve, and to accept my good intention. In this 
view I transcribe the quotation I mentioned, on the opposite 
page, and beg leave to declare myself. 

Very respectfully. Reverend Sir, 

Your most humble servant. 

East Apthorp.^ 



1 Though the son of a wealthy merchant of Boston, he did not return to this coun- 
try again, but spent the remainder of his days in England, being first presented by 
Archbishop Seeker to the Vicarage of Croydon. He was subsequently collated to 
the Rectory of St. Mary-le-Bow in London, with other benefices annexed, and still 
later became a Prebend in St. Paul's Cathedral. It is said he was actually offered 
the Bisliopric of Kildare, but having lost his sight, he was obliged to decline, and 
finally retired to Cambridge among the scenes of his early education, for he was 
an alumnus and fellow of Jesus College, "honored and loved not only in his im- 
mediate circle, but by many of the great and good beyond it." He died April 16, 
1816, in the 85th year of his age. 



286 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 



CHAPTER Xn. 

THE SMALL-POX IN NEW YORK ; DEATH OP HIS WIFE ; RESIGNA- 
TION OF THE PRESIDENCY AND RETIREMENT TO STRATFORD ; 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH FRIENDS IN ENGLAND ; RE-APPOINT- 
MENT TO HIS FORMER MISSION ; ADDRESS TO THE BISHOP OF 
LONDON ; THE STAMP ACT ; CONTINUED INTEREST IN THE COL- 
LEGE ; AND CLERICAL CONVENTION. 

A. D. 1763-1766. 

For some time it had been known that the disease 
which Johnson so much dreaded was more or less prev- 
alent in town. He had not chosen to avail himself of 
the stipulation made with the Governors that he 
might retire into the country on its appearance, but 
had remained at his post, and used additional cau- 
tion, to avoid the contagion. When the last Com- 
mencement was held (1762), he was carried to the 
Chapel in a close carriage ; and in all the letters to 
his son for the rest of the year, he expressed his 
thankfulness to God for the continuance of good 
health, and seemed to be cheered with the hope of 
soon getting away from a situation of such peculiar 
anxiety. He began to think of having accommoda- 
tions provided for him in Stratford, and his son, 
writing to him in Christmas week, said, " If you de- 
termine absolutely to remove in the Spring you will 
let me know by-and-by, whether I shall prepare to 
enlarge my house, or endeavor to hire one for you, 
if any should offer." 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 287 

By this time the small-pox had appeared in several 
dwellings near the College, and he and his wife were 
obliged to keep as close as possible in the building, 
and with this precaution they hoped to be safe. To- 
wards the end of January, however, Mrs. Johnson be- 
came very ill with what was thought to be only a 
bad cold, but alas ! on the first day of February her 
real disorder developed itself, which proved to be the 
small-pox. She received the information with com- 
posure, and, from a tender regard for the welfare of 
her husband, desired him to leave her with his prayers 
in the hands of God, and withdraw to a place of less 
danger. For two days he occupied a room in the 
other end of the College building, and then his friends, 
thinking him too much exposed, he retired three 
miles distant to the country seat of Mr. Watts, and 
there waited in painful suspense the result of his wife's 
sickness. He had not long to wait, for on the 11th 
of February, overwhelmed with grief, he wrote to his 
son, " The thing that I feared is come upon me, 
God's will is done. Your good mother died on Wed- 
nesday evening, the 9th," and he added that they 
were probably then " carrying her to her grave, to 
lie by his own mother," under the Chancel of Trinity 
Church. 

This bereavement was a crushing blow to him, and 
he resolved at once to resign the presidency of the 
College and go into retirement. He tarried a fort- 
night longer at the country seat of his friend, wrote 
his letter of resignation to the Governors, and then 
committing his affairs to Mr. Cooper and a lay-gentle- 
man, " hired an able hand with a sleigh " to take him 
to Stratford, where he arrived February 25, 1763. 



288 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

He was now in the 67th year of his age, blessed 
with good health, but having natural infirmities which 
called for a less anxious and active life. His con- 
nection with the College had been a sacrifice to him 
in a pecuniary sense, and in resigning the charge of 
it, he modestly hinted that he might be entitled to 
some consideration for his many hardships and losses. 
That it had not prospered more was not owing to any 
fault of his, but to " providential misfortunes or to 
the Governors themselves, in not providing a good 
Grammar school; for," said he, "till provision is 
made both for a better classical and English educa- 
tion, the College can never flourish." 

The following correspondence has a meaning that 
is more than simply official : — 

Nkw York, March 2, 1763. 

Reverend Sir, — At the meeting of the Governors of 
King's College yesterday, your letter addressed to them was 
laid before them. They are sensibly touched with your late 
misfortune, and the immediate occasion of your retiring ; 
and that vein of benevolence, which runs through your letter, 
could not but very much affect them. 

I have the pleasure to be the instrument of returning 
their thanks for your faithful service as President, and your 
good offices for promoting the interest of the College hitherto, 
and 3^our affectionate wishes for the future prosperity of it, 
gratefully accepting your kind offer of continuing your en- 
deavors on all occasions for the advancement of that good 
work ; and they wish you health and happiness. 

As for the rest, the Governors have resolved to take your 
case into consideration at some future meeting. In the mean 
time be assured that I am, 

Reverend Sir, your very affectionate friend and- 
very humble servant, 

Daniel Horsmanden. 



. OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 289 

Answer : — 

March 30. 

Gentlemeist, — I very humbly thank you for your kind 
answer to my letter to you, communicated to me by the 
Honorable Judge Horsmanden, and for your affectionate 
sympathy with me under my truly compassionable circum- 
stances ; and that you take in so good part my past faithful 
endeavors to serve you, and my persevering solicitude for the 
prosperity of the College. This, I trust, is a pleasing pre- 
lude to that friendship which I hope will always subsist be- 
tween the Corporation and me, and a further engagement to 
any good offices in my power for the furtherance of its 
wants. 

I am particularly thankful, gentlemen, for your kind reso- 
lution in my favor, to take my present depressed condition 
into your benevolent consideration at some future meeting, 
and shall gratefully acknowledge whatever kind dispositions 
you shall at any time express towards me. With my con- 
tinued fervent wishes for the prosperity of you and yours, and 
that dear College, 

I remain. Gentlemen, with great regard. 

Your most affectionate friend and obed't humble serv't, 

S. J. 

It was a time of war during the whole of his Presi- 
dency, and the expenses of living in town had been 
so much greater than was expected, that the Gover- 
nors could not well refuse a gratuity, and finally voted 
to settle upon him a pension of fifty pounds per an- 
num. This was secured chiefly through the influence 
of the Rev. Mr. Auchmuty, who did not think it 
enough, but was glad to have some recognition of the 
sacrifices and self-denials of his venerable friend. 

Johnson was resolved not to be idle in his retire- 
ment. His son " built him an elegant apartment," 
attached to his own mansion, where, surrounded with 

19 



290 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

his books and his grandchildren, he devoted himself 
to quiet study and was happy in the enjoyment of his 
domestic privileges. His literary and theological cor- 
respondence was not slackened but rather increased ; 
and the introduction of the works of good authors 
into this country continued to be an object near his 
heart. A letter of his to the Rev. Mr. Home of Ox- 
ford, from which an extract was given in the previous 
chapter, brought forth a reply which must have 
reached him in the freshness of his sorrow for the 
death of his wife. 

Reveeend Sie, — I am greatly obliged to you for the 
good opinion you are pleased to entertain of me and any trifle 
I have published ; and rejoice to have an opportunity of 
recommending a work of real merit and solidity on the sub- 
ject of the sacred philosophy, by my learned friend Mr. Jones, 
who is proceeding on the same plan, with ability and erudi- 
tion adequate to the work, as fast as his health will permit 
him. Dr. Patten's controversy with Heathcote, some time 
since at an end, I presume hath found its way to New York. 
The Doctor hath published nothing more except an excellent 
sermon on " Natural Religion." Dr. Newton, Bishop of 
Bristol, hath lately put forth an admirable work on the 
" Prophecies," in three vols, octavo. I expect Dr. Jay every 
minute, to whom I shall deliver this with a letter from Mr. 
Berkeley ; and am with best wishes and prayers for the pros- 
perity of King's College and the worthy President thereof. 
Reverend Sir, your most affectionate servant, 

G. HOENE. 

Magd. Coll., iVoyemJer 29, 1762. 

Answer : — 

Stratford, in Conn., N. E., Jwie 1. 

Reveeend and woethy Sir, — I am very much obliged 
to you for your most kind letter of November 29, and the verj 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 291 

excellent things that accompanied it, which are all entirely to 
my mind, and I want words to express my gratitude for them. 
Mr. Jones's Essay is exactly such a thing as I have long 
wished to see, and I am the more pleased with it as coming 
from the author of the " Catholic Doctrine of the Trinity," 
which I had before been highly pleased with. These are in- 
deed the true primitive original philosophy and divinity of 
the Holy Scriptures, made evident and intelligible. You 
will please to give him my compliments and thanks for these 
good works, which I shall earnestly recommend to our book- 
sellers to have always by them, and to my College to be al- 
ways there taught and inculcated, where your state of the 
case has already been of good use. I earnestly pray God 
to give Mr. Jones life and health to finish what he designs ; 
and to you also, good Sir, as well as Dr. Patten, that you 
may go oh to bless the world with your most useful writ- 
ings, that this unholy age may if possible be reclaimed from 
its apostatising turn. I had received from Mr. Cooper a high 
notion of Dr. Morton and ordered my bookseller to procure it, 
and grow impatient till it comes. 

It is of vast importance to us at this distance to have 
good authors pointed out to us by good judges. I shall 
therefore be highly obliged to you, if you will be so kind 
as to communicate to me and my successor such as at any 
time excel ; and indeed it would be happy for us if really 
good authors could be induced from time to time to present 
our Library with their productions in every kind. 

I date, you see, Sir, from this place, whither I am retired 
to spend with my only and most tender and dutiful son the 
little declining remainder of my time, being near sixty-seven, 
and wanting retirement, though, thank God, in perfect health 
except somewhat paralytic. I did not indeed intend quite so 
soon to leave the College, but so it pleased God. I was sud- 
denly driven from it by the small-pox breaking out in my 
family and depriving me of the dear partner of my life. But 
I hope it will immediately be well governed and instructed by 
Mr. Cooper, who is well esteemed and appears to be an in- 



292 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

genioTis, industrious, and prudent young gentleman. I have 
still the same care for it as ever so far as can be at this 
distance — about seventy miles, — the post weekly passing, 
and I hope now and then to visit it. If you do me the 
favor to write again, please direct to me here, to the care 
of the Rev. Mr. Auchmuty of N^w York. 
I am. Reverend and dear Sir, with great esteem and regard. 
Your most obliged and affectionate friend and servant, 

S. J. 

He wrote to Dr. Burton, the Secretary of the So- 
ciety, in the autumn of 1763, to express his thanks 
for the proposition to transfer Mr. Winslow to a Mis- 
sion near his friends in Boston, that he might him- 
self be reappointed to Stratford. He had not had 
much thought of doing more in his advanced years 
than to direct the theological studies of a few young 
candidates for Holy Orders, and send them with com- 
mendatory letters to England. But this opportunity 
of resuming parochial duty was too attractive to be 
disregarded. It met with favor from Mr. Winslow, 
who for many reasons was desirous of a change. " I 
have communicated the proposal to him," said Johnson, 
" which he was fond of, as it would place him near 
his friends. He had indeed had thoughts of it before, 
but some of his friends had discouraged him about it. 
However, upon this offer of it, he is now thinking in 
earnest about it and is treating with the Wardens and 
Vestry of Braintree, to see whether it may prove to 
his advantage, and he will soon let the Society know 
whether he accepts, as I am apt to believe he will." 

Mr. Winslow's name was suggested at one time as 
a suitable person to take the Rectorship of Trinity 
Church, New York ; and the son of Dr. Johnson, 



\ 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 293 

writing April 9, 1764, from that city, whither he had 
gone to be inoculated for the small-pox, said to his 
father, " Good Dr. Barclay made me a visit yesterday 
though he was but illy able to get up-stairs ; he has 
had a bad week of it. He returns his affectionate 
compliments to you, but is at present by no means fit 
to undertake such a journey as you propose, as he 
cannot ride above three or four miles in a day, and 
durst by no means be out of the way of his physicians. 
The Doctor's illness has occasioned the Church to 
think of looking out for another clergyman. Mr. 
Auchmuty has desired my opinion of Mr. Winslow, 
whom I have recommended as the best preacher I 
know of, but as I have not his liberty to mention 
it, I must beg you will say nothing of it at present, 
and perhaps he will write to you himself on the sub- 
ject." 

Letters were addressed afterwards directly to Mr. 
Winslow, but he seems not to have favored a settle- 
ment in New York, for he was shortly transferred to 
Braintree, and the venerable Doctor took his place 
and returned to pastoral work among a people who 
had not forgotten his fidelity, though for ten years 
they had only heard his voice occasionally. With the 
assistance of a student at times in reading the service, 
he found little difficulty in fulfilling his duties, and 
his residence in the Colony again became a tower of 
streno-th to the Church in Connecticut. 

o 

The following letter to the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, in answ^er to one which appears in the previous 
chapter, shows how earnest he was at 4:his juncture 
for the complete establishment of the Church in 
America : — 



294 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

September 2Q, 1764. 

It grieves me that j^our Grace must be so persecuted with 
that tormenting distemper for which nothing can atone, but 
what were good Bishop Berkeley's opinion and hopes, that it 
might prevent more fatal maladies in the decline of life, and 
tend to lengthen one's days. This I do at least earnestly 
pray may be the happy event with respect to your Grace's 
precious hfe, which is of so much importance to the present 
age. 

I was almost overjoyed after our feeble efforts here to 
find one,' who I did not doubt was the ablest hand in the 
kingdom, had condescended to undertake our mighty giant, 
and in the opinion of our people had utterly disarmed him ; 
nor had any of the Dissenters, that I can hear of, a word to 
say, except Mayhew himself, who, upon its being immedi- 
ately reprinted here, directly advertised an answer preparing, 
contrary to the advice of his best friends. I had it from a 
good hand that a man of the best sense among them told 
him he was completely answered, and advised him by no 
means to attempt a reply. But undaunted, he would not 
be dissuaded, and in a few days published it ; but I am told, 
in a letter from Boston, that " to his mortification very lit- 
tle is said about it." . . . . In a word, I am verily persuaded 
jt will do much the most good here as well as at home of 
anything that has yet been published. It is doubtless now 
in your hands, and you are the fittest judge whether any re- 
ply is necessary. 

Neither had I, my Lord, ever heard of the case of Mr. 
Price and Barret, in which there might be too much truth, 
as I remember Mr. Price was too intemperate for the sake 
of his farm, in his endeavors to propagate the Church there. 

I beg your Grace's pardon that I seemed perhaps a little 
too impatient in my last with regard to the settling Episco- 
pacy in these countries, where I know that all the Church 
people (except' a few lukewarm persons and free-thinking 
pretenders to it, and sometimes attendants on it, but are 
really enemies to any estabhshment) are very desirous of it j 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 295 

and that all moderate Dissenters, who, I believe, are the 
most numerous in the whole, and who know what is really- 
designed, have little or no objection to it ; and that the 
number of such bitter zealots against it is comparatively 
few, and chiefly in these two governments, either such loose 
thinkers as Mayhew, who can scarcely be accounted better 
Christians than the Turks, or such furious bitter Calvin- 
istical enthusiasts as are really no more friends to monarchy 
than Episcopacy; and against people of both these sorts 
Episcopacy is really necessary towards the better securing 
our dependence, as well as many other good political pur- 
poses. 

Your Grace's quiet, private, and conciliating method, is 
doubtless best if the point can be gained, as it ought to 
be, in that way ; but as I knew of no steps taken or like to 
be, and as your Grace was so infirm, I was afraid nothing 
would be done without some general and strong solicitations 
from hence, without which indeed I feared the ministry would 
hardly think anything about it themselves, or that we were 
at all solicitous -for it here. I am therefore greatly rejoiced 
that something is doing, that the two chiefs of the separation 
have no objection to it, and that your Grace is assisted by 
two such great, worthy, and active gentlemen as the Arch- 
bishop of York and the Bishop of London ; and that they 
have so good an interest ; and that so great a minister as 
the Duke of Bedford has given so favorable attention to it 
and promised to promote it. These are very hopeful begin- 
nings, and from these, together with the other considera- 
tions your Grace mentions, it should seem scarce possible 
that it should miscarry ; so that I hope our first news in 
the spring will be that it is done, and that our governments 
all depend immediately on the Crown. May God Almighty 
grant a happy success to your Grace's faithful endeavors 
that his Church here may at length at this crisis be provided 
with worthy Bishops, without which, according to the origi- 
nal constitution of the Church (in my humble opinion), no 
Church can be perfect ; which if it should please God to grant, 



296 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

I could then cheerfully sing my nunc dimittis ! but if He 
should not, the best thing that could be done would be to 
go into Dr. Smith's proposal, which we have long wished 
for. 

The reason for not increasing missions here might be al- 
lowed good at this juncture; the young men^ are safe re- 
turned, and will doubtless be very useful. I hope Mr. Jarvis 
may do tolerably for several years, as his people are much 
more able. But Mr. Hubbard must in two or three years 
be otherwise provided for, if the Society cannot help Guil- 
ford, which for the reasons I mentioned to your Grace, I 
earnestly hope they may by that time safely do. 

What hindered good Dr. Barclay from mentioning the two 
things your Grace tells me he neglected, I am not able to 
say, unless it was the great infirmity he then began to labor 
under, which soon disabled him for public duty, and last 
month put a period to his very valuable life, to the inexpres- 
sible grief of his church, and indeed all the churches. The 
worthy and faithful Mr. S. Auchmuty was soon unanimously 
chosen in his place, and one Mr. Inglis in hia, whom I know 
not, but I have good reason to think that Mr. Auchmuty will 
prove a worthy incumbent, and I wish for the honor of the 
Church and his station, that being of nigh twenty years' stand- 
ing of our Cambridge, he might also succeed the Doctor in 
his degree. As to Mr. Caner, he was bred and graduated at 
our New Haven College, but was also created M. A. at Ox- 
ford, March 3, 1735, on the recommendation of Archbishop 
Potter ; and Mr. Chandler of the same College proceeded 
M. A. in 1748, and had a diploma from Oxford, June 4, 
1753, I believe, by your Grace's influence. And now I am 
upon the subject of degrees,^ as I can't but retain a great af- 
fection for Oxon, and am desirous of continuing my connection 
with it, will your Grace forgive me if I mention my only son, 
who is a lawyer, for whom I am desirous of a Doctor's degree 

1 Rev. Abraham Jarvis, afterwards Bishop of Connecticut, and Rev. Bela Hub- 
bard, for forty-five years Rector of Trinity Church, New Haven. 

2 Those for which Johnson asked in this letter were all conferred in 1766. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 297 

in that faculty ? His name is Wm. Samuel. He is M. A. of 
seventeen years' standing in both our Colleges, and after a 
laborious study of the law he has been above ten years in the 
practice of it to good acceptance, and is studious in Divinity 
as well as in Law, and much engaged in the interest of the 
Church and true religion. He is well known to the bearer, 
Mr. Harison, from whom your Grace may have a further ac- 
count of him if you think it needful. Mr. Apthorp's affairs 
suddenly calling him home, I beg your Grace's particular re- 
gard to him as a very worthy young gentleman. As I con- 
tinue to pray earnestly for your Grace's health and long life, 
I humbly beg the continuance of your prayers and blessing 
in behaK of, etc., S. J. 

The hope of obtaining Bishops, which now appeared 
so bright, was not realized. The ministry disappointed 
all the friends of the measure by neglecting the fcase 
of the Church and directing attention wholly to the 
civil affairs of the Colonies. Great confusions and 
tumults soon after followed both here and at home in 
consequence of the passage of the Stamp-act, and ad- 
vantage was taken of this state of things to raise a 
fresh clamor against the establishment of Bishops in 
America. It was claimed that nineteen twentieths of 
the American people utterly opposed the scheme, and 
no correction of such a statement was ever accepted 
by the ministry. Dr. Johnson and the clergy of Con- 
necticut sent congratulatory addresses to Bishop Ter- 
rick on his advancement to the See of London, and 
a correspondence ensued which must have opened 
his eyes, though he was powerless to effect a reform. 
Johnson wrote to him as follows : — 

July 15, 1765. 

I take this opportunity with the utmost gratitude to ac- 



298 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

knowledge your Lordship's most kind and condescending 
letters of February 22, both to the clergy and me, — theirs 
I sent to them at their Convention, which I qould not at- 
tend by reason of the distance and badness of the roads, 
and I hear they have also most graciously acknowledged it 
in a joint letter to your Lordship. I am glad your Lord- 
ship is pleased with the worthy Mr. Harison's account of 
the clergy in this Colony, which I hope they will be more 
emulous to deserve. 

It is, my Lord, a kind condescension that you are pleased 
to desire of me an account of the state of religion in these 
parts of the world. It is with much difficulty that I write, 
having a trembling hand, and therefore I can be but brief. 

The true state of religion in America, with respect to the 
several denominations, is this : The Independents or Con- 
gregationalists, as they call themselves here in New England, 
especially in the Massachusetts and Connecticut Colonies, 
without any regard to the king's supremacy in matters of re- 
ligion, have got themselves established by law and are pleased 
to consider us as Dissenters, but are miserably harassed with 
controversies among themselves, at the same time that they 
write against the Church. One great cause of their quarrels 
is the Arminian, Calvinistical, Antinomian and enthusiastical 
controversies which run high among them and create great 
feuds and schisms ; and these occasion the great increase of 
the Church, at which they also are enraged, though them- 
' selves are the chief cause of it. 

As to the Presbyterians, my Lord, they chiefly obtain in 
the Southwestern Colonies, and have flourishing presbyteries 
and synods, especially in New York, New Jersey, and Penn- 
sylvania, in their full vigor ; while in all these parts the 
poor Church is in a low, depressed, and very imperfect state 
for want of her pure primitive Episcopal form of govern- 
ment. We do not, my Lord, envy our neighbors, nor in the 
least desire to disquiet them in their several ways. We only 
desire to be upon at least as good a foot as they, and as per- 
fect in our kind as they in theirs ; and this we think we have 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 299 

a right to, both as the Episcopal form was the only form of 
government at first universally established by the Apostles, 
and is the primitive form established by law in our mother 
country ; and therefore cannot bvit think ourselves extremely 
injured in not being provided for, and in a state little short 
of persecution in our candidates being forced, at a great ex- 
pense of both lives and fortune, to go a thousand leagues 
for every ordination, as well as destitute of Confirmation and 
a regular government. So that unless we can have Bishops, 
especially at this juncture, the Church, and with it the in- 
terest of true religion, must dwindle ; while we suffer the 
contempt and triumph of our neighbors under this neglect, 
who plume themselves with the hope that the Episcopate 
is more likely (as from the lukewarmness and indifference 
of this miserably apostatizing age they have too much reason 
to do) to be abolished at home, than established abroad. 
And indeed, my Lord, they are vain enough to think the 
civil government at home is itself really better affected to 
them than to the Church ; and even disaffected to it ; other- 
wise it would establish Episcopacy here as it is there. PudH 
hcec opprobria commemorare. 

I humbly thank your Lordship for saying so much in our 
behalf in your excellent sermon before the Society. Would 
to God a due notice might be taken of it ; I do also most 
humbly thank you for your kind prayers and blessing, and 
beg the continuance of them ; nor shall I cease to pray ear- 
nestly for the long continuance of your Lordship's very im- 
portant life and health, being truly, my Lord, with great 
veneration, etc., S. J. 

The Stamp-act threw the country into such a fer- 
ment and the oj)position to its enforcement was so 
great that steps were early taken to procure its re- 
peal. A Congress of the Colonies met at New York, 
and the son of Dr. Johnson was chosen to represent 
Connecticut in that body, and drew up the remon- 



300 LIFE AND CORllESPONDENCE 

strance to the King and Parliament against the meas- 
ure, asserting taxation by themselves and trial by 
jury as among the inherent privileges of the subjects 
of the British realm in all her dependencies. The 
President of the Congress — Ruggles of Massachu- 
setts — would not sign the document ; and James Otis, 
a colleague of his, writing to Johnson after reaching 
his home in Boston, spoke of the attempt of the Mas- 
sachusetts Assembly to censure him for his refusal, 
which he himself prevented, and then added : " The 
people of this Province, however, will never forgive 
him. We are much surprised at the violent pro- 
ceedings at New York, as there has been so much 
time for people to cool, and the outrages on private 
property are so generally detested. By a vessel from 
South Carolina we learn that the people were in a 
tumult at Charleston and terrible consequences ap- 
prehended. God knows what all these things will 
end in, and to Him they must be submitted. In the 
mean time 'tis much to be feared the Parliament will 
charge the Colonies with presenting petitions in one 
hand and a dagger in the other." ^ 

The Stamp-act was repealed just one year after its 
passage, and the venerable Missionary, who from his 
retirement in Stratford had looked with sorrow on 
the public discontents, was once more hopeful that 
the establishment of Bishops in this country might 
receive the attention of the ministry. He had not 
ceased to be interested in the College at New York, 
and Mr. Cooper, his successor in the Presidency, had 
been in the habit of spending more or less of his 
vacations with him, that they might consult together 

1 MS. Letter to Wm. S. Johnson, November 12, 1765. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 301 

and devise good things for its welfare. He paid a 
visit to New York in May, 1766, and was present at 
the annual Commencement held on the 20th of that 
month in Trinity Church. It afforded him unspeak- 
able satisfaction to find the College in a prosperous 
condition, and the graduating class the largest hith- 
erto sent forth. 

But there was another matter which interested him 
at the time quite as much as that of education. The 
day after the Commencement, fourteen clergymen, 
two from Connecticut and the rest from the provinces 
of New York and New Jersey, held a Convention at 
which Johnson presided and Dr. Auchmuty preached 
a sermon. The most important business transacted 
was the adoption of an address to the Society on the 
extreme hardshijDs the Church in America labored un- 
der for want of Bishops. It added to the moral force 
of the address that two young men, Mr. Giles of New 
York, and Mr. Wilson of Philadelphia, who had been to 
England for Holy Orders, had just been lost on their 
return in a ship that was dashed to pieces near Cape 
Henlopen. These made ten, whose precious lives 
sickness or the sea claimed, out of fifty-one who had 
gone from this country for ordination in a little more 
than forty years. It was an awful sacrifice for the 
sake of the Church, and they implored that it might 
be ended. " It is a greater loss," said Johnson, '• to 
the Church here in proportion than she suffered in 
the times of Popish persecution in England." 

While the clergy were holding this Convention, a 
Synod of about sixty Presbyterians met at New York 
with the design, it was said, of asking the General 
Assembly of Scotland to apply to the Parliament of 



302 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Great Britain for an act of incorporation in their be- 
half. Reference was made to this Synod in communi- 
cating the address of the clergy, and a letter from the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, which is among the last, 
if not the very last that he wrote to his venerated 
friend, met the considerations urged then and previ- 
ously, and touched upon another point of great im- 
portance : — 

Lambeth, July 31, 1766. 

Good Dk. Johkson, — I am much ashamed, that I have 
delayed so long to answer your letters, and still more grieved 
that I cannot do it now to my own satisfaction or yours. It 
is very probable, that a Bishop or Bishops would have been 
quietly received in America before the Stamp-act was passed 
here. But it is certain, that we could get no permission here 
to send one. Earnest and continued endeavors have been 
used with our successive ministers, but without obtaining 
more than promises to consider and confer about the mat- 
ter ; which promises have never been fulfilled. The King 
hath expressed himself repeatedly in favor of the scheme ; 
and hath proposed, that if objections are imagined to lie 
against other places, a Protestant Bishop should be sent to 
Quebec, where there is a Popish one, and where there are 
few Dissenters to take offence. And in the latter end of 
Mr. Grenville's ministry, a plan of an ecclesiastical estab- 
lishment for Canada was formed, on which a Bishop might 
easily have been grafted, and was laid before a Committee 
of Council. But opinions differed there ; and proper per- 
sons could not be persuaded to attend ; and in a while the 
ministry changed. Incessant opposition was made to the 
new ministry ; some slight hopes were given, but no one 
step taken. Yesterday the ministry was changed again, as 
you may see by the papers ; but whether any change will 
happen in our concern, and whether for the better or the 
worse, I cannot so much as guess. Of late indeed it hath 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. . 303 

not been prudent to do anything unless at Quebec. And 
therefore the Address from the clergy of Connecticut, which 
arrived here in December last, and that from the clergy of 
New York and New Jersey, which arrived in January, have 
not been presented to the King. But he hath been ac- 
quainted with the purport of them, and directed them to 
be postponed to a fitter time. In the mean while, I wish 
the Bishop of London would take out a patent like Bishop 
Gibson's, only somewhat improved. For then he might ap- 
point commissaries ; and we might set up corresponding 
societies, as we have for some time intended, with those 
commissaries at their head. He appears unwilling, but I 
hope may be at length persuaded to it. 

Requests have been made to me and other Bishops, first 
for countenance, then for contributions to Mr. Wheelock's 
Indian school. My answer was that we heartily wished suc- 
cess to it; and intended to set up one not in opposition, 
but in imitation of it ; that we hoped the Dissenters would 
sufficiently support Mr. Wheelock's undertaking ; but could 
not hope that they would contribute anything to a similar 
one of ours ; and therefore it seemed requisite, that Church- 
men should do their best for ours ; though if any would be 
kind to theirs also, we should not blame them. They seemed 
pretty well satisfied. My first notion was, that we might 
maintain Indian boys at Mr. Wheelock's school, who should 
afterwards take Episcopal Orders. But Mr. Apthorp was 
clearly of opinion, that they would all disappoint our ex- 
pectations in that respect. Now if only most, or many of 
them would, it ^vill be absolutely necessary, that we should 
set up an Episcopal Indian school ; else we shall both neglect 
our duty and lose our reputation. But we shall need the 
best advice of our friends, in what place or places, and un- 
der what masters and regulations, it will be most proper to 
attempt this. And the sooner we have such advice the 
better ; for the distance between the Society and the scene 
of their business is extremely inconvenient. Mr. Barton of 
Lancaster hath conversed on this subject with Sir William 



304 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Jolinson, who liath desired to be proposed for a member 
of our Society, and earnestly recommends the Indians to our 
care at present. We have sent to ask further information 
from both these gentlemen ; and shall be glad of it from all 
who are capable of giving it. 

1 have mentioned our late and former losses of mission- 
aries to the King, as one argument for Bishops. He is thor- 
oughly sensible, that the Episcopalians are his best friends in 
America. There seems no likelihood that the Scotch Pres- 
byterians will obtain any further privileges from our Parlia- 
ment for their American brethren. Nor do I think there is 
any considerable increase of vehemence against Episcopacy 
here. Declaimers in newspapers are not much to be minded ; 
nor a few hot-headed men of higher rank. I entreat you 
to write often and fully to me concerning all the Church 
affairs of America. I have not indeed been tolerably reg- 
ular in my returns to your letters. Gout and business, and 
principally the delusive hope that a little time would pro- 
duce good news, have hindered me. I will endeavor to do 
better, if God spares my life. But at least your informa- 
tions and advice will be always highly acceptable and use- 
ful to Your loving brother, 

Tho. Cant. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON^ 305 



CHAPTER XIII. * 

REVIEW OF Hutchinson's philosophy ; study of hebrew 

AND publication OF GRAMMAR ; INDIAN SCHOOL ; DEPART- 
URE OF HIS SON FOR ENGLAND ; CHANDLER's APPEAL ; COR- 
RESPONDENCE WITH HIS SON; ENGLISH ANCESTRY; AND DEATH 
OF ARCHBISHOP SECKER. 

A. D. 1766-1768. 

The nest of Hutchinsonians, which his younger son 
found at Oxford in 1756/ was by this time well-nigh 
broken* up ; but he had neither rehnquished their phi- 
losophy, nor ceased to read their books. He found 
leisure in his retirement to review the studies of for- 
mer years, and reexamine the conclusions which he 
had reached on philosophical and theological subjects. 
It gratified him that he was under no necessity of es- 
sentially changing his opinions; and while he could 
not approve the tendency towards extremes in some 
things, he still leaned to the side of Hutchinson in 
the controversy which arose upon his writings, and 
generally accepted them as teaching the truth. He 
thought he saw in the respectable scholars at Oxford ^ 

1 Mr. Berkeley, " the very worthy son of his great father, mtroduced us to a 
very valuable set of Fellows of several of the Colleges, Hutchinsonians, and truly 
primitive Christians, who yet revere the memory of King Charles and Archbishop 
Laud; and despise preferments and honors when the way to them is Heresy and 
Deism."— il/S. Letter of Wm. Johnson, May 25, 1756. 

2 "I am sorry to find that the Bishop of Oxford [Dr. Lowth] is not a very good 
friend to Dr. Home, but you will readily suppose that the Hutchinsonians are not 
out of countenance when you see Home is head of Magdalen, and Wetherell of Uni- 
versity College, Jones in a good living, and Berkeley with two, and in the high 
road to preferment by the patronage of his Grace." —if/S. Letter of Wm. Sam'l 
Johnson, March 15, 1768 

20 



306 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

who favored that author's views, an earnest effort for 
the revival of Hebrew literature, and as this was a 
branch of study upon which he prided himself, he 
was glad of anything in the shape of new light, to 
guide his inquiries and help to a proper understand- 
ing of the original tongue. 

It was about this time, or a little earlier, that he 
composed a small English Grammar for use in con- 
ducting the preliminary education of his two grand- 
sons, and having revised his Catechism hitherto issued, 
he published them both together, in the hope that 
they might serve a good purpose to others. 

But the study of Hebrew was the chief delight of 
his quiet hours. For many years he had entertained 
a strong opinion that as this was " the first language 
taught by God himself to mankind, and was really the 
mother and fountain of all language and eloquence, 
so in teaching, it would be, on many accounts, vastly 
advantageous to begin a learned education with that 
language," which lends to all others and borrows from 
none. He set himself, therefore, to the preparation 
of a Hebrew Grammar to go side by side with his 
English Grammar ; the structure of the two lan- 
guages bearing in his view a close resemblance. 
While engaged in this work, a new Hebrew Lexicon, 
by the Rev. John Parkhurst, was sent to him, and 
the value which he attached to this publication is best 
seen by quoting the letter which he addressed to the 
author from 

Stratford, Conn., N. E. 

Rev. Sir, — I humbly hope your candor and goodness will 
pardon the assurance and liberty that so obscure, remote, and 
unknown a person as I am, takes to address you in this man- 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 307 

ner ; as it proceeds from a well-meant zeal to promote the in- 
terest of religion and learning, and especially the study of 
the Hebrew Scriptures in this my native country. I labored 
for ten years in founding a College in New York, and I hope 
with good success ; but it growing too tedious for my years, 
I have lately retired hither into a delightful country parish, 
where I had before served the Society for Propagating the 
Gospel for above thirty years. And having great health and 
leisure ^thank God), I am still pursuing the same design of 
promoting the study of the Hebrew Scriptures, to which but 
very few here are addicted, and I could think of no better 
project than to get the Grammar of it studied with a Gram- 
mar of our own excellent languas^e as the best introduction 
to what is called a learned education. 

While I was pursuing this design, I was most agreeably 
surprised with your admirable " Lexicon," calculated in the 
best manner to promote my favorite views ; and I take this^ 
opportunity to offer you my most hearty thanks for that 
excellent work which I hope will be a very great blessing to 
this as well as to our mother country. And since I must 
send my little performance home to be printed, as we have 
no types here, I humbly take the liberty to beg the favor of 
you to take the trouble of perusing it, and if you judge it 
may be of any good use to the purpose I aim at, to correct 
whatever mistakes I have made in it, and to recommend it 
to your printer to print it. The bearer hereof is Mr. Giles 
(who has transcribed it for the press). He goes well recom- 
mended by the clergy here to my Lord of London and his 
Grace and the Society for Holy Orders and a mission, and is 
very desirous of being a factor for the sale of as many as we 
can get of your " Lexicon" and this Grammar, in these parts 
of the world. I am, Reverend Sir, etc., 

S. J. 

The work was printed by W. Faden, London, in 
1767, and four years afterwards a second edition of 
it, " corrected and much amended," was published by 



308 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

the same bookseller, with the title, "An English and 
Hebrew Grammar, being the First short Rudiments 
of those two Languages, taught together." Its re- 
ceipt was acknowledged with approbation by Robert 
Lowth, then Bishop of Oxford, a scholar whose " Pree- 
lections on Hebrew Poetry " interested Johnson, and 
gave him a high opinion of their author as introduc- 
ing a new era in sacred literature. The publication 
was remarkable for its simplicity, and attracted the 
attention of several men of letters. He had been 
known before as one of the best Hebrew scholars in 
the country, and. when Dr. Kennicott undertook to 
collate all the Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testa- 
ment, in England and other parts of Europe, he sent 
an inquiry to Johnsbn through Franklin, who was 
then in London ; and he, in communicating it, said, 
" I have but little expectation that any ancient He- 
brew manuscripts of the Bible may be found in Amer- 
ica ; but if such have possibly strayed thither, I think 
you, who are so well skilled in that language, are most 
likely to know of them." 

The General Assembly of Connecticut, at the May 
Session, 1766, " Upon the memorial of the Rev. Elea- 
zar Wheelock," revived a brief throughout the Col- 
ony^ for the support and encouragement of the Indian 
Charity-school under his care at Lebanon. Printed 
copies of the act were delivered to the several min- 
isters of the Gospel, who were directed to read the 
same to their congregations and fix a time for con- 
tributions. Johnson, who had always felt a compassion 
for the poor Indians, and tried, on various occasions, 
to make God's way known among them, showed his 
Christian and cathohc spirit when, upon publishing 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 309 

the brief to his people, he urged them to contribute 
cheerfully and generously to promote so good a work. 
"If any," said he, "are reluctant because Mr. Whee- 
lock is not of our communion, we should remember 
St. Paul's blessed temper which he expresses on the 
like occasion, ' whether the Gospel be preached of 
envy or of good will — I therein do rejoice, yea and 
will rejoice ; ' and this we may the rather do as this 
gentleman seems to express a truly Christian temper. 
And he has certainly fallen upon the right method for 
converting the heathen, by civilizing their children and 
teaching them husbandry, and the arts and manufac- 
tures, while he teaches them Christianity. I hope, 
therefore, you will liberally promote this good work, 
aecording to your ability, by coming prepared next 
Lord's day after service, to make your offerings to that 
purpose." 

In acknowledging the " generous contribution," 
Mr. Wheelock was pleased to compliment him for his 
English Grammar and Catechism, and was so im- 
pressed with the value of the latter that he proposed 
to the author a slight change in the answer to one 
question, which, if he would make, he promised to 
use his influence to have the whole reprinted for the 
benefit of children, particularly in the Indian schools. 
The change involved a nice doctrinal point, having 
reference to a new heart and a new life. 

Dr. Johnson agreed with Archbishop Seeker in the 
opinion that the Society should establish an Episcopal 
Indian school, and thought that with a Bishop placed 
at Albany or Schenectady, such a one might be car- 
ried on under his eye and direction vastly to the 
credit and reputation of the Church. He even wrote 



310 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

to Sir William Johnson, Bart., the British agent for 
Indian affairs in New York, who was a Churchman 
and a member of the Society, to consult him about the 
best place in which to set up a school after the general 
plan of Mr. Wheelock,^ but his suggestion was event- 
ually overlooked in the consideration of other things. 
The Colony of Connecticut was deeply interested 
in the title to a large tract of land, which one Mason 
had raised a dispute about in behalf of the Mohegan 
Indians. Twice it had been determined here in the 
Colony's favor by disinterested Commissioners, acting 
under the appointment of the King and Council ; but 
still the great question was unsettled ; and Dr. Wil- 
* liam Samuel Johnson was selected as a special agent 
to the Court of Great Britain to manage the case and 
bring it to a righteous conclusion. " I know not," said 
the father in a note introducing him to Archbishop 
Seeker, " by what fate it is, but quite contrary to all 
my expectations, the people of this Colony, notwith- 
standing their aversion to the Church, have chosen 
my son a member of their Council, and appointed him 
their agent to defend them in a cause of great im- 
portance before the King and Council." He departed 
from New York the day before Christmas, 1766, and 
arrived in Falmouth harbor on the 3 0th of January. 
The letters which he carried with him gave him ac- 
jcess to the highest dignitaries of the Church, as well 
as to the highest officials in the Government, and he 
used his pen freely in communicating to his father 
whatever he saw and heard that might interest him 
personally, or tend to affect the progress of Christian- 

1 The Indian Charity-school at Lebanon was incorporated with Dartmouth Col- 
lege, New Hampshire, in 1771, and Dr. Wheelock made President. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 311 

ity cand the welfare of America. " Yesterday," said he 
in his first letter to him after reaching London, " I 
went to Lambeth, and was introduced to his Grace, 
and happily met there the Bishops of London and 
Bristol. The Archbishop received me very kindly and 
inquired very kindly as well as minutely after your 
health. He assured me he would, if possible, attend 
the hearing of the Mohegan cause when it should 
come on, and hoped to find it as just as I had repre- 
sented it." 

The next letter mentioned his presence at the An- 
niversary Sermon of the Society for the Propagation 
of the Gospel, preached February 20, 1767, in the 
Church of St. Mary-le-Bow, by Dr. Ewer, Bishop of 
LlandafF. Owing to a bad delivery and his own bad 
hearing he " could take up very few sentences," but 
he knew he dwelt " largely upon the subject of Amer- 
ican Bishops."^ 

The following extract is from the same letter : — 

Last Sunday I had the pleasure to hear the Archbishop 
preach, and to receive the Sacrament with him. He is truly 
an excellent preacher, even yet full of life and vigor ; uses no 
glasses, and speaks with great ease ; he has a fine voice, a 
decent, emphatical gesture, and an affectionate manner which 
engages the closest attention. His language is pure and cor- 
rect, his sentiments just and masterly, yet adapted to the 
meanest capacities ; he enters very little into speculative 
points, but exhorts to the practice of rehgion with great 
force, warmth, and energy. After service I dined with his 
Chaplains, Dr. Stinton of Oxford, and Dr. Porteus of Cam- 
bridge, both of them very worthy men. I then received an 
invitation to dine with his Grace the next day, which I com- 

1 This was the celebrated sermon which excited the hostility of Dr. Charles 
Chauncy of Boston, an able Congregational divine, who thereupon renewed the war 
of pamphlets in this country, which had recently been closed. 



312 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

plied with, and found at his table only Mrs. Talbot and her 
daughter, who live with the Archbishop, Lady Carter, the 
Bishop of St. David's, Dr. Moss, and Dr. Porteus. The en- 
tertainment was very elegant, and the Archbishop extremely 
facetious, easy, and agreeable. He carves himself, helps 
everybody, and does the honors of the table with an extreme 
good grace. This is telling you trifles, but I imagine every 
circumstance with respect to the Archbishop will be agree- 
able to you. ■ You cannot imagine h.ow much I wished you 
had been there. The conversation turned much upon Amer- 
ican affairs, and from the course of it, I am convinced that 
such is the situation here at present that you must not ex- 
pect anything can be soon done relative to the important 
object you have so much at heart. 

This " important object " was the American Episco- 
pate, and a new effort was now made to remove, if pos- 
sible, all opposition to it in both countries. So early 
as September, 1766, Dr. Chandler of Elizabethtown 
wrote thus to his venerable friend at Stratford : " By 
a letter from Mr. Cooper of a late date, I find that 
you continue to think that something should be pub- 
lished on the subject of American Bishops, and that I 
ought to undertake it. As to the former of these 
points, I have for a long time been convinced of the 
necessity of it, in order to bring the Dissenters and 
some of the Church people, and perhaps, liorresco 
refer ens, some of our clergy into a just way of think- 
ing on the subject. But as to the other point, as I 
am conscious of my own unfitness for the task, I 
have never been so happy as to be able to join with 
you in opinion." 

The matter took definite shape afterwards when at 
a " general Convention " of clergymen from New 
York and New Jersey, with a few from other prov- 



OF SAMUtrL JOHNSON. 313 

inces, Chandler was appointed to prepare an appeal 
to the public, and he assured Johnson, who but for a 
tremor in his hand would have written it himself, that 
not a page should be printed until it had been submit- 
ted to his examination. He was indebted to him for a 
plan of the pamphlet, which he Avorked up by degrees, 
and furnished early in the spring of 1767. For on the 
15th of April in that year, he wrote, announcing a 
proposed visit of President Cooper to Connecticut, and 
said among other things, — 

Mr. Cooper will bring you my papers concerning American 
Bishops. I am ashamed that tliey should be offered for your 
inspection in so rough and imperfect a state ; but my abso- 
lute inability to gain time to write them over again and give 
them a general correction, must be my apology. Before they 
go to the press, which will be some time in June, I must 
transcribe them ; and by that time I shall be able to improve 
them much by the assistance of friends. Even without any 
such assistance, I think I could make them less unworthy of 
the notice of the public, by straightening the crooked places, 
and smoothing the rough ones, besides other amendments. 
But I begin to be disturbed in proportion as the time of 
publication draws nigh ; and I must beg the favor of you 
to be on this occasion, what you have ever been on all occa- 
sions, my fidus Achates^ my mentor, my guardian, and con- 
ductor. Every instance of your severity I shall esteem as a 
proof of your affection ; and should your pen be as sharp as 
the point of a javelin, it would give me not pain, but pleas- 
ure. 

You will therefore not be sparing in your animadversions, 
for the credit's sake of a young adventurer, who has been 
pushed forward by your own impulse, and for the sake of 
the cause, which must considerably depend on the success of 
this publication. I am sorry the papers cannot be left longer 
in your hands than Mr. Cooper is with you ; but when I was 



314 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

appointed by the Convention to draw them up, I insisted 
upon a Committee to assist me ; and as Mr. Seabury is one 
of that Committee, and has never had an opportunity of 
seeing them but in a very cursory manner last week in New 
York, I promised him, that after Mr. Cooper's return from 
Stratford they should be left in his hands. In my opinion 
the most blundering part of them at present is in the passage 
relating to Sir W. Johnson, of whoni something is said that 
ought by no means to be said without his particular permis- 
sion. And yet his testimony in favor of the usefulness of an 
Episcopate towards the conversion of the Indians is of too 
much weight to be omitted. 

The publication of the " Appeal " did not at first 
fulfill the expectations of its author. He was disap- 
pointed that the clergy were not more active in cir- 
culating it, though he knew previously that those 
southward would regard it with little favor. Shortly 
before it appeared Dr. Chandler made a journey into 
Maryland, and in a letter to Johnson, giving a humor- 
bus account of the agricultural skill of the people, 
and a deplorable one of the state of the Church, he 
said, " Of about forty-five clergymen in the province, 
five or six are of good character, whose names should 
be mentioned with honor, .... but to hear the 
character of the rest, from the inhabitants, would 
make the ears of any sober heathen to tingle. You 
may be sure that they are much averse to having an 
American Episcopate, and they are averse to their 
numbers being increased, or their vacancies supplied 
from the northward." 

The " Appeal " was reprinted in London, and 
.sharply attacked there, as it had been here by Dr. 
Chauncy and other Dissenters. A passage from a 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 315 

letter of its author to Dr. Johnson, written at the 
close of the summer of 1768, will show the nature of 
these attacks. " You see," speaking of the reprints, 
" that it has been answered by a Presbyterian there ; 
and I find that the ' London Chronicle ' has intro- 
duced the subject to the view of the populace ; several 
pieces having been published therein, but all of them 
by Chauncy's friends. In one of them an account 
is given of the answer made by the very learned 
Dr. Chauncy to a piece written in favor of American 
Bishops hy one Chandler. In another, it is asserted 
that Dr. Chandler says that an American Episcopate 
is upon the point of being established, and that a tax 
is to he laid on the Americans for the supj^ort of it. 
It is astonishing that such falsehoods as these can be 
suffered to go unanswered, and that no methods are 
taken by the guardians of the Church to prevent the 
propagation and growth of them." 

It was difficult for Dr. Johnson, at this period, to 
write long letters to his son, but he managed to keep 
him well informed of the state of political and relig- 
ious feeling on this side ; and weighed thoroughly 
what was communicated to him in reply. In a letter 
from Stratford dated June 8, 1767, he expressed his 
pleasure at hearing that temperance was so much in 
fashion in England, and added, — 

I wish you could have said the same of rehgion and all 
other virtues, but upon the whole I doubt the times are 
very deplorable, especially on account of the rage of avarice, 
ambition, and lust, which seem to threaten a dissolution. 
What else can be expected from such an unsettled state of 
the ministry, owing to such a perpetual and violent justling 
about in and out ? What can a Pitt do in such a state, even 



316 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

if he mean ever so well, which after all is, perhaps, as well 
to be doubted o£ him as other men ? If they cannot agree 
to do us any mischief, so they can neither, for the same reason, 
agree to do us any good ; and that will be a great mischief, 
especially since what concerns the interest of religion here 
is totally neglected and despised. 

I am extremely glad you heard and communicated with 
my great and good friend the Archbishop. Your character of 
him as a preacher and at his table is extremely beautiful and 
amiable. I wish with you I could have been with you. I 
must believe him to be one of the first characters of the age. 
I am indeed glad if he took in good part my last long letter, 
I was afraid it would be of hard digestion. 

The Society have truly done you a great honbr, in making 
you their agent in the Hampshire affair, and I am glad you 
have so good hopes of that, and that you have audience with 
the Earl of Shelburne. It is said here with triumph that he 
told one Stockton of New Jersey, who I see has been in 
Scotland, and I suppose is the Synod's agent against Bishops, 
that there is no occasion for Bishops in America. I wish 
you may be able to convince him to the contrary, as I hope 
you will by Dr. Chandler's " Appeal," which I will send you 
as soon as printed. 

The son, in his next letter, observed : " I doubt not 
Lord Shelburne said as you have been told. I wish 
he was the only one amongst the ministers of that 
opinion. I fear it is universal, and the common senti- 
ment of all the leaders of all parties, and that, per- 
haps, of all others in which they are most agreed. 
The '■ Appeal ' you mention, however well drawn up, 
will, I fear, have very little effect. Perhaps the more 
you stir about this matter at present, the worse it Avill 
be." In the same letter, he took occasion to speak of 
Archbishop Seeker, characterizing him as certainly 
one of the best of men. "I can clear up," he said, 



OF SAJMUEL JOHNSON. 317 

"whatever has seemed dubious in his conduct or 
character, and shall do it when I return to America. 
But the Court is not a scene for such good men to 
act in, and he wisely keeps himself to his own prov- 
ince ; his diligence and condescension would surprise 
you ; he excuses himself from no labors, assiduities, or 
attendance where he has the least prospect of doing 
good ; he is beloved most by those who know him 
best ; even the most profligate reverence him." 

Besides attending to the business of his agency, 
which was protracted beyond his expectation, and hav- 
ing interviews with British Lords, who Avere occupied 
far more with material comforts than religious ques- 
tions, the son found time to make several journeys 
into the country ; some for the benefit of his health, 
and others for the sake of observation and historic cul- 
ture. In returning to London from one of these, he 
went out of his course to visit at Bray the family of 
the late Bishop of Cloyne. His friend, the Doctor, was 
not at home, but his mother, the widow of Berkeley, 
made amends in some degree for his absence, whom 
he described to his father thus : " She is the finest old 
lady I ever saw ; sensible, lively, facetious, and benev- 
olent. She insinuates herself at the first acquaintance 
into one's esteem, and -begets a high opinion of her 
virtues. She received me very affectionately, and 
remembered America, and you in particular with 
great regard, and was pleased to say that the Bishop 
and she had more pleasure in your acquaintance than 
any other person's while they were in that country." 

In October, 1767, he made a tour into Yorkshire, 
and the agrreeable letter which he wrote after reach- 
ing his destination has more than a family value : — 



318 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

York, October 17, 1767. 
Honored Sir, — I received yours of the 11th of July the 
day before I left London, on my tour this way, and as I have 
been in motion ever since, could not write before. I am sur- 
prised that there should be so long an interval as three 
months between my letters, which I repeat very often ; liow- 
ever, I hope it was not many days after you wrote, before you 
had intelligence, and that you will not again have so long a 
delay, unless it be in the depth of winter, when it may in- 
deed be expected. The favorable account you give me of 
your own and my family's health gives me the greatest pleas- 
ure, and I bless God for it as I do for my own, which I find 
much confirmed by my ride here, which I was advised to take 
for that purpose, both the exercise and the country air having 
been very beneficial to me, and perfectly recovered me from 
my late indisposition. 

It gave me concern to find you were in danger of some 
trouble in Church matters, and especially that my old friend 
Jabez Hurd should have any hand in it, who I hoped would 
use all his influence to preserve peace and quietness ; by this 
time, however, I hope matters are settled again, and indeed 
what can you fear with such a weight as the newly acquired 
friendship you mention must bring with it. 

I see nothing amiss in the letters you inclose me, and 
shall deliver them as soon as I have opportunity for it ; when 
I came out, those to whom they are directed were all out 
of town. I spoke to Faden the morning I came away to 
get Foster's Bible, which he said he would do, but chose to 
take Mr. Parkhurst's opinion of it first, which he would have 
against my return ; and as to the second part of the •' Intro- 
duction," etc., it is not yet brought to the press, being the 
composition of a gentleman for the benefit of his own school, 
who delays the publication till his own pupils are ready to 
make use of it. 

I thank you for sending your bill, and will get the pictures 
you mention if to be had, but fear there is no plate of the 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 319 

Bishop of Oxford or Lord Lyttleton, if there be of the Bishop 
of Carlisle. The latter are two as indifferent faces as are to 
be seen in the House of Lords, especially Lord Lyttleton, 
who is a lean, long-visaged, crooked, shriveled old gentle- 
man ; you would think him in a consumption ; his voice too 
is very bad, but when he speaks, as he does pretty often, 
it is always very sensibly, and he is heard with great at- 
tention.^ 

When I came to Kingston-upon-Hull, I found Mr. Bell, 
with the Mayor and Corporation of the town at a turtle feast, 
at the inn I put up at. I introduced myself to him, and he 
me to the Mayor, etc., and after some time to his lady, who 
was very well pleased to see and acknowledge me as a re- 
lation. She is a worthy, sensible woman, but has few me- 
morials of the family ; both her parents having died when 
she was not two years old. Her father was a lawyer and 
died at the age of thirty-two. Her grandfather lived upon 
his estate (without any profession), which I find was very 
considerable. Her great uncle was a Doctor of Physic, emi- 
nent in his profession and by his monument in Cherry-Burton 
Church (which I visited as well as the family seat there), it 
appears he died the 1st of November, 1721, at the age of 
ninety-four, having survived his wife, and seven out of nine 
children, who all died without issue, and the two which sur- 
vived him being females never married, by which means the 
whole estate came to Mrs. Bell. This old Dr. Johnson re- 
tained his memory, etc, to the last, and as he remembered 
the transactions of almost a century, had you happened to 
have met with him, when you were here in 1723, he could 
doubtless have told you the circumstances of the emigration 
of our ancestors, no traces of which can now be discovered 



1 " Since you wanted Lord Lyttleton's picture, I got an acquaintance of mine to 
mention it to his Lordship and know of him whether he had any plate ; and your be- 
ing an American who had a value for his writings, he desired his compliments to 
you and thanks for taking so much notice of him, but said there never had been any 
picture taken of him, though his bookseller had requested one to prefix to his Life 
of Henry II., and perhaps he should consent to it when he had finished that work." 
— MS. Letter, Febniary 6, 1768. 



320 LIFE AND CORRESPOXDENCE 

here. The arms are not the same with those we ha-ve as- 
sumed. I have taken a note of them, and shall examine at 
the " Herald's " office when I return to London. If, at this 
distance, any evidence of our relation could be imagined to 
arise from similarity of countenance, Mrs. Bell and I might 
pass very well for brother and sister, except that her eyes 
are very black. Her eldest child, a daughter about thirteen, 
is exactly our Polly, with a little longer face, and the other 
very like Betsey. Their son I did not see, being at a distant 
school. Whether we are related or not, they were really 
very civil, and as much so as they could have been with the 
clearest proof of it, and desired me to present their affec- 
tionate compliments to you and all the family. 

Nothing very material has occurred here, unless it be the 
death of the Duke of York, who is not very greatly lamented 
(except by the Royal family and his own domestics}, though 
we are all obliged to go into deep mourning for him. 

I congratulate you on the anniversary of our birthdays, 
and hope the next we may celebrate together, in agreeable 
remembrance of my present rambles. I shall set out in a 
few days on my return to London, and shall write again by 
the first conveyance after I get to town ; and in the mean 
time am, with the tenderest love to my dear wife and all the 
children. 

Honored Sir, your most dutiful son and humble servant, 

Wm. Sam'l Johnson. 

The trouble in the parish, referred to in this letter, 
was not very serious, and appears to have grown out 
of a desire on the part of Dr. Johnson's friends to 
furnish him with some aid in his ministrations. His 
infirmities had become so great that at times he was 
unable to discharge his public duties, and a " sore- 
ness in his legs," the result partly of breaking one 
of them about twenty years before, confined him to 
the house several weeks, in the winter season. Mr. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSOX. , 321 

John Tyler, a graduate of Yale College and a theo- 
logical student of his, who was about to proceed to 
England for ordination, was thought of as a perma- 
nent assistant ; but opposition was raised to him on 
the ground that he was not a very good reader and 
did not promise to make much of a preacher, and a 
few of the parishioners therefore did not wish to see 
him in a position where, according to the natural 
course of things, he would succeed to the Rectorship. 
Dr. Johnson, not less than the Church of England in 
the Colonies, lost a firm and noble friend in the death 
of Archbishop Seeker. They were kindred spirits. 
They were " loving brothers," as far as two men of 
nearly the same age could be so, without having seen 
each other face to face, or known each other only in a 
long and affectionate correspondence. The letter of 
his son which brought the intelligence of his decease 
was one of the saddest that could have come to him 
at that crisis. It is worthy of being spread upon 
these pages, for the facts it contains and the counsels 
it gave : — 

London, August 12, 17G8. 

HoNOEED SlE, — I must not fail by this packet to ac- 
quaint you (though I imagine Mr. Tyler did not leave the 
Downs before the melancholy intelligence reached him) of 
the death of our great and good friend, the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, in whom rehgion in general, and particularly 
the Church in America, have lost their best friend in this 
country. His physicians and friends flattered us with hopes 
that he might recover from this disorder, and continue yet 
some time ; but for my own part I have been, ever since I 
saw him last, about a month ago, satisfied he was drawing 
near his end. The immediate occasion of his death was the 
misfortune of breaking his thigh bone, which happened on 

21 



322 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

Sunday evening the 31st of July, as he was endeavoring to 
raise himself hastily from his couch ; it was immediately set 
by the king's surgeons, and he was easy and more comfort- 
able than could have been expected after such an accident, 
but soon grew worse, and on Wednesday, the 3d inst., he ex- 
pired. When his body was opened, it appeared that his 
thigh bone was extremely decayed, and the physicians ex- 
pressed their astonishment, that he could have lived so long 
under so much pain as he must have, endured, for some time 
past with the gout, rheumatism, and gravel, by all which he 
was sorely afflicted, and his constitution quite worn out. He 
was interred privately, according to his own orders, in Lam- 
beth churchyard. 

Thus we must bid adieu to one of the best of men. God's 
will be done ! He can and certainly will take care of His own 
cause and interest in the world, but in truth I see no prospect 
at present that anybody here will make good the Archbishop's 
ground. Several of the Bishops are indeed very worthy men^ 
but none of them in my opinion by any means so well quali- 
fied for that high station as the late Archbishop. It does 
not yet appear who will succeed him ; almost every Bishop 
has been named ; at present the Bishop of Lichfield and 
Coventry, Dr. Cornwallis, is most talked of, and he and the 
Bishop of London seem to stand the fairest chance ; but in- 
terest may give it to another, and it is difficult to say who, 
at present, is most in favor at Court. 

But from none of them, I fear, may religion in America 
expect that attention and aid which it has formerly had. 
The Church of England there should in fact think more of 
taking care of itself. The Society v/ill indeed, I trust, still 
continue to afford their friendly assistance, but even that is a 
precarious dependence, and I wish my countrymen not to rely 
too much upon it, but prepare themselves as far as possible to 
stand upon their own ground. The affection between that 
country and this seems to be every day decreasing, and the 
growing jealousies on both sides threaten the destruction of 
all our harmony and happiness ; already there is hardly any 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 323 

other cement left between us beside the interest founded in 
trade, and even that is declining. Let us look forward and 
see where these things must end, and consider what must 
probably be soon the state of that country and this. I was 
going to imagine it with respect to religion. But in truth I 
dare not pursue these reflections farther upon paper. Let 
them remain for the subjects of future, but alas ! distant 
conversation, for I see little prospect that I may spend next 
winter with you at Stratford, or that I can leave this coimtry 
before next spring. I almost say with David, " Woe is me 
that I am constrained to dwell with Mesech, and to have my 
habitation among the tents of Kedar ; " but we must sub- 
mit and leave it to Providence, which orders all things for 
the best. 

I am just now happy in receiving your favor of the 10th 
of June, by which I find you were all well at that time. 
God be thanked for it, and for the perfect health I enjoy. I 
shall forward your letter to Dr. Berkeley, who is now at 
Canterbury, and will bring Pike's " Lexicon," as you advise, 
for Billy, who, I rejoice greatly to find, proceeds so rapidly 
in his studies. With my tenderest love to him, my dear 
wife, and all the children, and compliments to all friends, 
I remain, honored Sir, 

Your most dutiful son and humble servant, 

Wm. Sam'l Johnson. 

August 13. 

I inclose you this morning's paper, by which it appears 
that the Bishop of Lichfield is nominated Ai'chbishop of 
Canterbury ; you have also some account of the late Arch- 
bishop's will, and a list of his charities. 

Yours, W. S. J. 



324 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 



CHAPTER XIV. 

STRUGGLE FOR AMERICAN BISHOPS CONTINUED ; FOREIGN COR- 
RESPONDENCE ; BISHOP LOWTH AND HEBREW GRAMMAR ; AS- 
SISTANT MINISTER ; MARRIAGE OF GRANDDAUGHTER ; AND 
PROLONGED ABSENCE OP HIS SON. 

A. D. 1768-1770. 

The opponents of the Church of England in this 
country were restless under the continued efforts to 
secure American Bishops. As often as the clergy ap- 
plied for this boon, they repeated their representa- 
tions to the Government and Dissenters at home, that 
it was uncalled for, and, if granted, would be followed 
by outbursts of popular indignation. It has already 
been mentioned that the Southern Provinces were 
opposed, or rather not inclined to the scheme, and 
attempts were made to bring them over to its support. 
Johnson, waiting to the Rev. Mr. Camm of Virginia, 
before the death of Seeker, said : " We have been 
informed from home that our adversaries, who seem 
to have much influence with the ministry, endeavor, 
and with too much success, to make it believed, that 
nineteen twentieths of America are utterly against 
receiving Bishops, and that sending them, though 
only with spiritual powers, would cause more danger- 
ous disturbances than the Stamp-act itself; insomuch 
that our most excellent Archbishop, who has been 
much engaged in this great affair, and has greatly 
condescended to exchange many letters with me upon 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 325 

it for several years, has lately informed me that he 
has not been able to gain the attention of the min- 
istry to it ; though his Majesty is very kindly disposed 
to favor and promote it. I am therefore very appre- 
hensive that our solicitations will fail of gaining the 
point unless we could bring it to a general cry, and 
prevail with the Southern Provinces to join us in a 
zealous application to the Government at home in the 
same important cause." 

The attacks upon Chandler's " Appeal " led the au- 
thor to prepare an elaborate defense, and particularly 
with a view of replying to Dr. Chauncy, who was his 
most formidable antagonist. The outlook for the 
Church at this time was anything but encouraging. 
Passion took the place of argument, and hostile pens 
ran beyond the limits of reason, so that what Johnson 
wrote to his son was true : " These violent asserters 
of civil liberty for themselves, as violently plead 
the cause of tyranny against ecclesiastical liberty to 
others." The "Appeal Defended" was followed, at 
a later day, by another publication, entitled "The 
Appeal Farther Defended," and this was the last of 
the pamphlets in favor of the American Episcopate, 
though the idea could not be dislodged from the 
minds of the true friends of the Church. Chandler, 
in congratulating his venerable adviser at Stratford 
on recovering from a severe illness, expressed the 
hope that his health might hold out, by the blessing 
of Heaven, till he should " have the pleasure of see- 
ing a Bishop in America." 

The effect of the controversy was not felt to any 
good purpose in England. Other things absorbed the 
public attention, and the ministry was so much en- 



326 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

gaged with political measures, that no time was taken 
for deliberate consultation upon the interests of re- 
ligion in the Colonial dependencies. Johnson, the 
agent, wrote to his father in midsummer, 1769, when 
it was almost over : " I cannot but say, I am rather 
pleased that your controversy about American Bishops 
seems to be near its close, since I am afraid it can 
have no very good effects there, and it certainly pro- 
duces none at all here. It is surprising how little at- 
tention is paid to ii." The struggles of party were 
violent, and the uneasiness and discontents of the peo- 
ple at home needed watching and allaying not less 
than the troubles and disquietudes of the Colonies ; 
and in this way the great and important design 
of an American Episcopate was kept in the distance. 
" While the state of affairs, both with us and with 
you, continues just as it now is, I am afraid," said Dr. 
Lowth, then Bishop of Oxford, " we may not expect 
much to be done in it." One is reminded in this con- 
nection of the sarcastic observation of Sir Robert 
Walpole, the prime minister, when Dean Berkeley 
solicited in Parliament an act in favor of his scheme 
for the Berinuda College. He had gained the good 
will of the King, and he requested Walpole, in pre- 
senting the measure, only to be silent ; he was so. 
After it was passed, a courtier remonstrated with him 
against the proposition of the Crown, and he re- 
plied, " Who would have thought anything for pro- 
moting religion or learning could have passed a Brit- 
ish Parliament ? " -^ 

Dr. Johnson did not cease, under all the discour- 
agements of the times, to cherish some good hopes 

1 MS. of Wm. S. Johnson, 1767. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSOX. 327 

for the future. He was now the oldest of the clergy 
in America, and felt at liberty, as he had always 
done, to write very plain things to his English corre- 
spondents. He began, however, to foresee the storm 
gathering in the political horizon. He could not be 
blind to the determination of all parties to give up 
neither the parliamentary authority nor even the 
right of taxation in the Colonies. " I thank you," he 
said to his son in the spring of 1769, " for sending the 
Resolves, etc. What dreadful things they are ! They 
are like so many thunderbolts upon poor Boston, and 
it is well if they do not actually turn into great guns 
and bombs before they have done ; for these Olive- 
rians begin to think themselves Corsicans, and I sus- 
pect will resist unto blood. But if it should come to 
this, I doubt Old England and New will fall together, 
and both become a prey to the House of Bourbon. 
Deus avertat omen .'" 

His foreign correspondence grew more irksome 
with the increase of his infirmities, and he relied 
upon his son to do for him in England what he could 
not so well plead for by letter. Several of his friends 
in turn were pleased to communicate with him 
through the same medium. A domestic rather than 
a literary or theological interest is attached to the 
following letters : — 

My dear Sir, — I write these lines with your good son 
sitting by me. He has been so obliging as to give me his 
company (when at this place in last December) as often as 
he could conveniently. It was matter of great concern to me 
that he called on me at Bray last summer during my resi- 
dence at my other parish, twenty-five miles distant, and my 
mother, who, to her no small joy, received him, totally forgot 



328 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

to ask his address ; so that I had it not in my power to re- 
turn his visit. 

I have, on the strength of an hereditary friendship, opened 
my mind to your worthy son on every subject without re- 
serve. His Grace of Canterbury receives him always with 
the regard due to him on his own account, and on that of 
his excellent father-, to whom I beg leave to return my best 
thanks for a valu.ible token of regard which had not thus 
long escaped my notice. 

I have the happiness of telling you that my good mother 
(who remembers you with the truest respect) is very well, 
and likely to bless her family for many years. T am also, I 
thank God, very happy in my wife and two sons. My choice 
in matrimony gave the highest satisfaction to my mother, 
and therefore you will believe that it was not an unwise one. 

I earnestly pray for the continuance of your valuable life, 
and that a long stay on earth may lead you to a longer hap- 
piness. These lines are written, as you perceive, in a hurry, 
as Dr. Johnson must carry them away with him. 

I remain, my dear Sir, 

Your most faithful and affectionate friend and servant, 

Geoege Berkeley. 

Lambeth Palace, Thursday, Marcli 10, 1768. 

Answer : — 

June 10, 1768. 

My veey dear and worthy Sm, — It gave me the 
greatest satisfaction to receive your affectionate letter, and to 
be informed of your welfare, and of the health of that most 
excellent lady, your mother ; and moreover of your great 
happiness in so excellent a consort as she must undoubtedly 
be to have the approbation and esteem of so good a judge. I 
also rejoice with you in your two sons, and am glad that the 
great and good Bishop whom I am proud to call my friend is 
like to live in so hopeful a posterity, and I heartily pray God 
that all those joys and many more may long, very long be 
continued to you. I beg you will make my most affectionate 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 329 

compliments acceptable to your honored motlier (and your 
lady, though unknown), together with my hearty thanks for 
the very kind manner in which she received and treated my 
dear and only son, who has the highest sense of her amiable- 
ness and benevolence. I bless God that the friendship I had 
the honor of with your renowned father still subsists between 
our children, and am very glad that on the score of it you 
have so particularly opened your mind to my son on the most 
important subjects. 

I am greatly grieved at the dark account he gives me from 
you of the ill-health of the most worthy and excellent Mr. 
Jones, and let him know, with my compliments when you 
have opportunity, how great satisfaction I have in his excel- 
lent performance in Philosophy as well as the Trinity, and 
how earnestly I pray for his life and health, that he may 
bless the world with other labors ! ^ I bless God that such 
excellent men as Drs. Home and Wetherell are preferred to 
be heads of those important houses in the University, and 
when you have opportunity give them my compliments and 

joy- 

I am inexpressibly obliged to his Grace of Canterbury for 
the great honor he does my son, and thank you for the can- 
dor with which you accept such a trifle as my little Grammar, 
in which I had no other view than to be useful to young lads 
in America, where I am extremely desirous, if possible, to 
promote the study of Hebrew, as it is very little known here. 
I thank you, my dear Sir, for your affectionate prayers in my 
behalf, and remain with great esteem and regard, 

Your most affectionate friend and brother, 

S. J. 

1 Wm. Samuel Johnson, writing to his father May 14, 1768, and speaking of Arch- 
bishop Seeker, said : — 

"I dined with him about ten days ago, when he was able to sit at table, but had 
lio use of his left hand and arm. I had the pleasure to meet there Dr. Berkeley, and 
the very wortliy and learned Mr. Jones, who is much better in health than he used 
to be, and told me he was still pursuing his Principles of Natural Philosophy, and 
hoped he should ere long be able to publish something upon that subject. He re- 
membered my brother with much affection, and desired his compliments to you, as 
did Dr. Berkeley. His account of the state of Hutchinsonianism is much the same 
with what I have before mentioned to you." 



330 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

It alleviated the grief of his son's long absence that 
he received from him frequent and agreeable accounts 
of interviews with his old correspondents and with 
men of distinction in literature as well as in the affairs 
of the government. " For the sake of the name," he 
wrote in November 1769, " and because I think him 
one of the best of the modern writers, I made an ac- 
quaintance, some time ago, with Dr. Samuel Johnson, 
author of the ' Dictionary,' etc. He was very well 
pleased with the attention I paid him ; had heard of 
you, and presents his complim'ents. He has shining 
abiUties, great erudition, and extensive knowledge ; is 
ranked in the first class of the literati, and highly 
esteemed for his strong sense and virtue ; but is as 
odd a mortal as you ever saw. You would not, at 
first sight, suspect he had ever read, or thought in his 
life, or was much above the degree of an idiot. But 
nulla fronti fides, when he opens himself, after a little 
acquaintance, you are abundantly repaid for these 
first unfavorable appearances." -^ 

The Rev. Dr. Johnson had intimated to his son that 
seeing so much grandeur, and being conversant with 
the luxuries and refinement of the Old World, he 
might be tempted to look down upon America, or that 
his home, when he returned to it, would appear mean 
and despicable. But great minds are never thus af- 
fected. " I will not have the vanity," he replied, " to 
impute it to my philosophy ; but it is my good fortune, 

1 It has been told that when he introduced himself as an American, the great sage 
and moralist treated him, at first, somewhat rudely, and spoke harshly of his coun- 
trymen, saying, among other things: " The Americans ! what do they know and what 
do they read? " " They read. Sir, the Bambler,^' was the quick and polite reply; 
which so pleased him that he took the statesman into his confidence, paid him many 
civilities in London, and, after his return to this country honored him with kind 
and courteous letters. See Appendix A. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSOK 331 

that though I am pleased enough with seeing these 
things, yet they take little hold of my affections. I 
like to look behind the gay curtain, but when I do, I 
find little to admire and less to be attached to." And 
he added still more : " My wishes, were they indulged 
me to the utmost, would be very limited, and all cen- 
tre in a little ease and independence in the tranquil 
vales of America. The worst of it is, that I am not 
likely to be very soon gratified even in such humble 
hopes, and the best way (to which I hope to bring 
myself by and by) is to have no wishes for anything 
in this world but what we actually possess, or have 
certainly within our reach. This however cannot be 
till I return to Stratford." 

Ever since the publication of his " Hebrew Gram- 
mar," he had been desirous of issuing a second edition 
corrected and improved. It was his last contribution 
to Christian education in America, and he would leave 
it, as far as he had the means of making it so, in a 
perfect state. For this purpose he consulted several 
Hebrew scholars and solicited their opinion of the 
merit of his performance. To Bishop Lowth he sug- 
gested the idea of laying a broad foundation for the 
study of the language in this country, and giving to 
it a prominent place in collegiate instruction. " I 
wish," said the Bishop, " it were as much in my 
power, as were there an opportunity it would cer- 
tainly be in my inclination, to promote your useful 
proposal of establishing a Hebrew Professorship in 
North America. We must leave to God's good provi- 
dence this and many other improvements in that 
country, and I doubt not of their being in due time 
accomplished." The Bishop had given him to under- 



332 LITE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

stand that the learned were beginning to think in 
earnest of a new translation of the Scriptures, " as a 
thing not a great way off ; " and writing November 1, 
I77I7 to Mr. Parkhurst, the scholar who carried his 
" Hebrew Grammar " through the press in London, 
Johnson expressed the wish that all helps might be 
made available in such a work, even the discoveries 
of Hutchinson, for whose learning, with some excep- 
tions, he still retained a high respect. 

Among others whom he consulted was Mr. Sewall, 
Professor of Oriental Literature in Harvard Univer- 
sity; and through him he desired the opinion of a 
colleague, Mr. John Winthrop, about Hutchinson's 
" Scripture Philosophy." The answer returned is too 
good to be excluded from these pages : — 

Cambridge, 2ith July, 1769. 
Rev. Sir, — An answer to your obliging favor of March 
1, 1768, I acknowledge hath been long due. The only reason 
of delay was the want of a private conveyance. For I could 
not persuade myseK an epistle of this nature was worth the 
postage for such a length of way. 

My thanks are due, Sir, for those favorable sentiments you 
are pleased to express of the Oriental Professor at Cam- 
bridge. He wishes his poor, but honest endeavors may be 
followed with those happy consequences you mention. 

The union of the whole Christian Church, in the bonds 
of peace and love, is an object much to be desired. In the 
mean time, however we may differ in certain external modes 
and forms, I trust we shall each bear an undissembled affec- 
tion to all, of whatever denomination, who love our common 
Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. 

Mr. Professor Winthrop, Sir, is a firm believer in the 
Newtonian system. It cannot, therefore, be supposed he 
should entertain a very high opinion of a scheme so opposite 
to that as the Hutchinsonian is. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 333 

The Hebrew language is certainly the most simple of 
any ; and the grammars of it (setting aside the incumbrance 
of points), may be reduced to a smaller compass than that 
of any other language upon earth : it may, consequently, be 
learned with greater facility and expedition. Upon these ac- 
counts, and others that possibly might be added, I cannot 
but think it claims priority in a learned education. The pro- 
gression ought always to be from the easier to the more dif- 
ficult. 

Your Grammar, Sir, in my humble opinion, is upon a 
very good plan, and may answer very valuable purposes. 
You are the best judge whether it may be improved. It 
hardly becomes the modesty of one who is comparatively 
but a youth to point out to a gentleman of Dr. Johnson's 
learning and experience what improvement, if any, may be 
made in his own composition. 

I am. Rev. Sir, with great respect. 

Your very humble servant, 

Stephen Sew all. 

Something more than a lay-reader was now needed 
to aid Dr. Johnson in his parochial duties. Mr. Ty- 
ler, who had been with him above a year, pursuing 
the study of Hebrew and Divinity, was desirous of 
proceeding to England for ordination, and of being ap- 
pointed to a mission within the colony. ' Guilford and 
Norwich were both vacant, and as the former was the 
birthplace of Johnson, he procured him an invitation 
to read there for several months before embarking, 
and then gave him commendatory letters to the Arch- 
bishop and the Society. 

The Rev. Ebenezer Kneeland, a graduate of Yale 
College in 1761, three years in holy orders, and a) 
chaplain in the British army, appeared in Stratford 
and rendered acceptable service to the parish. 

He wrote to his son, January 15, 1768 : " My 



334 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

health, D. G., is perfectly good, but my legs much as 
they were. Mr. Kneeland, whom I much like, is here 
till March, and nearly adored : the people have sub- 
scribed £30 per annum, and he has agreed to quit 
his regiment and come next summer. Mr. Tyler is 
invited and gone to Guilford, and the Church is very 
happy and increasing." He described Mr. Kneeland 
at the same time as a good scholar and an excellent 
speaker ; but letters and other memorials will hardly 
sustain the description. They indicate neither depth 
of learning nor polished culture, and subsequent and 
more intimate relations must have led him to qualify 
his opinion. He was chosen associate minister, how- 
ever, and took the more laborious duties which had 
become so burdensome to the aged Rector. It was 
a welcome and timely relief, and the people were 
glad to provide it. 

Eighteen months elapsed, and his son in England 
was surprised to learn that Mr. Kneeland had formed 
an acquaintance with his eldest daughter (Charity), 
and desired to be united to her in marriage. The 
approbation of her mother and grandfather was ob- 
tained before his consent was asked, which appears to 
have been reluctantly given, with some good advice 
about the happiness and responsibility of the married 
state. This connection brought the assistant minis- 
ter and his superior more closely together, and made 
their interests in working the parish one. It left 
no room for jealousies, and Dr. Johnson was now grat- 
ified with the prospect of being succeeded by one of 
his own affinity in a charge especially dear to him, 
and which he had held for nearly forty years. 

What gave him the greatest anxiety at this period 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 335 

was the prolonged absence of his son in England. 
From year to year he had looked for his return, and 
lived upon the hope of seeing him again restored to 
his family, but his expectations were continually dis- 
appointed. He often begged him, for the sake of his 
domestic affairs, to relinquish his agency, if the busi- 
ness intrusted to him could not be speedily accom- 
plished ; and in December, 1769, he wrote to Gov- 
ernor Trumbull of Connecticut, congratulating him on 
his advancement to the head of the government ; and 
at the same time expostulating with him on the sub- 
ject of his son's being so long detained in England. 
" I am told," said he, " the Lower House voted to 
direct him to come home in the spring at all events ; 
but tliat the Upper House, led by, I know not what 
expressions in his letters, prevailed on the Assembly to 
conclude to instruct him by all means to continue 
longer, leaving, however, a discretionary power with 
your Honor to direct otherwise, if you should see 
reason for it, or something to this effect." 

The Governor, in acknowledging his " pathetic ex- 
postulation," did not admit that any such discretion- 
ary power was lodged with him, but rather that the 
General Assembly fully relied on the purity of the 
agent's intentions to serve the interests of the colony, 
and to return whenever it should be consistent with 
his sense of duty. He lamented the public confu- 
sions, and the " paltry injurious Indian cause," which 
had led to the long separation from his " dearest and 
tenderest connections;"- and then added, what was 
quite true, " his observations and intelligence will be 
of lasting advantage to the colony, and his services 
there at this critical juncture pecuKarly great." 



336 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

The agent, writing to his wife on New Year's Day, 
1770, said : — 

The present situation of our affairs is this. On the 22d 
ult. the Lords of the Council were moved to assign a day for 
hearing a motion we intend to make for dismission of the 
Mohegan cause, when their Lordships were pleased to appoint 
the first day of their next sittings for that purpose, and to 
assure us it should be before the expiration of this month. 
Should this motion on our part succeed, the cause is at an end. 
1 shall then be disengaged from this tedious affair, and shall 
have only to see what Parhament will do with the colonies 
in the course of this session, and may certainly leave Eng- 
land as soon as it is over, which will probably be sometime 
in May. Should we fail in this motion, we shall then indeed 
have to try the merits of the cause at large, but still have 
good reason to expect that it may be got through with in the 
course of the winter or spring ; so that either way I have the 
strongest hopes of seeing you some time next summer, at 
farthest, and you may rely upon it, it shall be as soon as 
possible. 

His strong hopes were not realized, and a vexatious 
delay again filled his friends with disappointment. 
He wrote his father late in the summer of this year 
that he had not only been unable to get his business 
dispatched, but had for a month past been extremely 
ill with a serious fit of the gout in both his feet ; 
and he intimated that if no probability existed of 
the Mohegan cause being tried in five or six months, 
he should not hesitate to come away as soon as his 
health would permit, though to return again, should 
it be thought necessary, to attend the trial. Once 
the case was nearly finished, June, 1770, when the 
sickness of the attorney general intervened and led 
to a postponement. Every way this was a sad mis- 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 337 

fortune to him, and speaking of his detention on 
this account in the same letter, he said : " One miti- 
gating circumstance, however, attends it ; that one 
can bear with more patience those ills which are the 
immediate inflictions of Providence than those which 
are occasioned by the faults of men. Had this de- 
lay been occasioned by anything less than sickness or 
unavoidable necessity I should have had no patience 
left. But nobody is to blame ; it was the act of Prov- 
idence." 

It has already been mentioned, as some compensa- 
tion for this protracted absence, that the father was 
favored with such graphic and admirable letters from 
his son. Nothing but talking over experiences at the 
fireside in Stratford could exceed the interest with 
which he read the descriptions of what he saw and 
heard in England, and his brief account of inter- 
views with men high in Church and State. The son 
was present at some of the most important and excit- 
ing debates in Parhament, and at a period too when 
great minds were occupied with great national sub- 
jects. He listened to the most eloquent defenders of 
the British Constitution, and gathered up every word 
that was spoken in vindication of measures which 
bore upon the welfare of America. The caution with 
which he communicated his observations to his father 
showed how critical the times were, and how solici- 
tous he was that his countrymen should not be un- 
prepared for the perils and hardships that lay in their 
path. 

In a letter to him on the 4th of January, 1769, 
he spoke of what seemed to be the fixed resolution 
of the Administration not to repeal immediately those 

22 



338 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

acts which the Colonies complained of, but to main- 
tain the right of Parliament to impose duties and 
taxes in America, and to enforce obedience to its laws 
in the most effectual manner. " The tide, in fact, at 
present," he added, " sets strongly enough against us, 
and I fancy will continue to do so while Lord Hills- 
borough administers our affairs, who is extremely in- 
flexible." Four months later he wrote again to his 
father with scarcely happier forebodings : — 

I am very much obliged to you that you accept so well my 
apology for this long, tedious absence, which, as I have said, 
I greatly hope will not be prolonged through another winter, 
though I cannot determine its period. Your obliging com- 
pliment upon my defense of the charter against Lord Hills- 
borough's objections is very flattering. I am sensible of the 
danger we are in with respect to all our rights, and particu- 
larly the evil eye they have upon this charter especially; 
yet I should be particularly sorry to have that event take 
place while I am here, and shall therefore, as it is my duty, 
continue to defend both that and all our other just rights, in 
the best manner I can while I continue in the service of the 
colony. It is extremely unhappy that we cannot on both 
sides come to a better temper in the unfortunate dispute now 
subsisting between this country and that. If we once get 
into blood, your conjecture will undoubtedly be but too soon 
fatally verified : we shall destroy each other, and become an 
easy prey to our enemies. Prudent men, on both sides, are 
aware of this danger, and will, I hope, by degrees gain so 
much influence as to prevent it. Administration have, since 
the rising of Parliament, given out that the duty-act shall 
be repealed next year, if the Colonies remain quiet, but one 
can hardly depend much upon the declarations of minis- 
ters. 

When the year came round and the address from 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 339 

the Throne had been issued, he inclosed a copy to his 
father, and wrote, among other things : — 

Lord Chatham appeared again (after three years' ab- 
sence) in the House of Lords, and declared himself the 
friend of America. He said he had not altered his ideas of 
the proper mode of governing the Colonies, wished for mod- 
eration and lenity, but would not go fully into the subject. 
" I have," says he, " a strong propensity towards that coun- 
try, and love liberty wherever it appears. That country 
was settled upon ideas of liberty. It is a vine, to use the 
allusion of Scripture, which has taken deep root and filled 
the land. May it long flourish ! But I am the friend not 
the flatterer of America ; they have done wrong in some 
things, but let us inquire coolly and candidly before we cen- 
sure as the address does." 

On the 7th of February, 1770, he wrote him a 
long letter, reciting his hindrances, and gravely re- 
pelling an insinuation which seems to have been mis- 
chievously made, that he was becoming alienated 
from his family ; and then he proceeded to things less 
personal, and described a debate in Parliament, the 
memory of which must have lingered with him to 
the end of his days. 

I hardly know how to write upon any other subject, but I 
must just tell you that we have had many changes of men, 
both by deaths and dismissions (which the papers, I presume, 
will have acquainted you with), without any changes of 
measures. Lord North, for the present, succeeds the Duke 
of Grafton as prime minister, and seems to intend to pursue 
the same system of politics. Parliament have been much 
retarded in their proceedings by these changes, and the rest 
of their time has been taken up with the Middlesex election, 
which has been repeatedly debated with great vehemence 



340 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

and acrimony, both by the Lords and Commons ; but the 
ministry have still carried their point in favor of the decision 
of last year, on several divisions, by a majority of about forty 
in the Commons, and in the Lords of about fifty. The Lords 
in the minority have signed the most spirited protest that is 
perhaps of record. The opposition intend still to pursue the 
point in every shape they can devise. 

Lord Chatham told the Lords that while he lived it should 
never rest, nor would they cease to bring it before Parlia- 
ment in every possible method, till the wound in the Consti- 
tution was healed. His last speech upon this occasion (about 
two o'clock last Saturday morning) was amazingly fine. 
Neither Greece nor Rome, I believe I may venture to say, 
ever heard anything superior to it. Roused with indigna- 
tion at some unfair proceedings of the ministry, as well as 
warmed by the universal ardor of the debate, he displayed 
his utmost powers of eloquence, and with astonishing abil- 
ity and energy even vanquished Lord Mansfield, who is cer- 
tainly one of the first of mankind, and worthy of such an 
antagonist. He obliged him to change his ground even in 
a point within his own profession, — the law. The conflicts 
of these two great men are such as would have been seen 
between Demosthenes and Cicero, had they been opposed 
to each other, warmed by emulation and heated by oppo- 
sition. They excel each other in different manners of elo- 
quence, but are equally superior to all others. This dispute 
so engrosses the attention of all the politicians that they 
can hardly think of anything else. Hence it is that Amer- 
ican affairs have not yet been taken up, though we expect 
they will be soon entered upon. There seems to be but little 
hope, at present, that we shall obtain more than the repeal 
of the duties upon glass, paper, and painters' colors, which 
mil answer no purpose to America. On the contrary, they 
threaten us with some severe resolutions, or perhaps a penal 
act, against agi:eements not to import goods. Lord Chatham, 
we are told, wishes the repeal of the whole of this Revenue 
act, but I fear he will not have influence enough to effect it. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 341 



CHAPTER XV. 

DESIRE FOR AMERICAN BISHOPS UNQUENCHED ; LETTERS FROM 
DR. BERKELEY AND THE BISHOP OF LONDON ; JOY AT THE 
RETURN OF HIS SON ; WISH FOR A PEACEFUL EXIT ; DEATH 
AND BURIAL ; CONCLUSION. 

A. D. 1770-1772. 

Though the war of pamphlets was about over, and 
formal appeals from the clergy in this country were 
ended, yet Dr. Johnson could not cease to be inter- 
ested in the effort to obtain American Bishops. He 
still felt that it was a want which must be supplied, 
and whenever he wrote to his English correspondents, 
which was not often now, he pressed it upon their at- 
tention. The Bishop of London, Dr. Terrick, appre- 
ciated his feelings, and expressed a willingness to 
favor the design on first coming to his London see. 
But objections were raised which he was not able to 
remove. They were the same which had hindered 
the attempts of his immediate predecessor. Bishop 
Sherlock, and deterred him from repeating his memo- 
rials to the throne upon the subject. They centered 
in the policy of statesmen, and gathered strength 
from the uneasiness and remonstrance of the Dissen- 
ters. 

Dr. Berkeley, not always perhaps with the best 
discretion, was a strong advocate of the scheme so 
persistently opposed. At one time he seriously 
meditated a visit to America with his wife, and went 



342 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

SO far as to take steps towards purchasing a farm in 
the colony of Connecticut. " I should much like," 
he wrote to the Rev. Dr. Johnson, from Cookham 
near Maidenhead, April 21, 1770, " to pass one year 
in a country for which I have inherited no slight af- 
fection from both my parents." In the same letter 
he mentioned : " Mr. Dalton is settled on a little farm 
near me, and enjoys very good health ; he often talks 
of America with great regard." And then he added, 
with a mixture of playfulness and seriousness : — 

If you Americans are not betrayed by your wives and 
daughters, you may transmit the invaluable blessing of lib- 
erty to your posterity ; but if your females conspire with 
short-sighted merchants (who are too lazy to become farm- 
ers), you may in hah a century be enslaved as the Irish are 
at this day, where the list of court-pensioners (mostly Eng- 
lish) consumes riiore than ninety thousand pounds sterHng 
annually ; all of which money is granted vdthout Parha- 
ment, by virtue of the Privy Seal. And after it has been so 
granted, Parliament is applied to for ways and means, which 
if the Irish Parliament should refuse to afford, the English 
Parliament would claim a privilege once surreptitiously ob- 
tained, and raise a revenue by taxation without representa- 
tion. 

The design of visiting America was relinquished, 
partly owing to a preferment which kept him at 
home, but his interest in the country continued. He 
was a warm friend of the American Church, and ap- 
pears to have anticipated for it a great future. His 
intimacy with Dr. Johnson, the Colonial agent, in- 
creased with every year of his stay in England, and 
his regret at parting with him was deeper than 
words could exnress. That gentleman under date of 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 343 

Tuesday, June lltli, 1771, entered in his private 
journal : " Attended at the Cock-pit the final hearing 
of the Mohegan cause ; " and having disposed of 
other trusts and business committed to him, and taken 
leave of his many friends, he bade adieu to London, 
and sailed from Gravesend for New York on Saturday, 
the 3d of August. Among the letters which he 
brought with him addressed to his father, was the fol- 
lowing : — 

Canterbury, Monday, July 29, 1771. 

Reverend and dear Sir, — God grant that you may 
speedily receive these lines from the hands of your excellent 
and very amiable son. His deep distress at being thus long 
unavoidably detained from his worthy lady, yourself, and his 
beloved olive-branches, has sensibly impaired his health. 
We, who love and regret him, as he deserves, hope that the 
effect will cease with the cause. 

I wrote to you a long letter immediately on the receipt of 
your last favor. In that letter I opened my mind to you 
with great freedom on some important subjects, and I have 
now reason to suspect that (by the carelessness of a servant) 
those breathings of my soul have miscarried. This accident 
would have been much more grievous to us if Dr. Johnson's 
return did not now anticipate my reflections on the state of 
learning, church discipline, and religion in America. Mr. 
Temple of Boston visited me here a few days ago ; he styled 
his friend. Dr. Johnson, the flower of America. 

My expectations of receiving one more visit from the be- 
loved bearer of these lines are, alas I now to be given up. 
This morning, a person just arrived from London, has 
brought me a most unwelcome message from him, and my 
letter will be but barely in time. 

It happens, by what we mortals call chance, that the Dean 
of this church is an amiable and religious man ; he is to be 
elected Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry as soon as he shaE 



344 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

have completed his thirtieth year, ^. e., before the end of next 
week. Dr. North is much fitter for the office of a Bishop 
than any old man (without exception) that I remember to 
have seen appointed to that ofiice. Your good son knows as 
much of the real political and ecclesiastical state of -England 
as any man in it ; I need not add, more than all the Ameri- 
cans I ever knew put together. 

Mrs. Berkeley, your old acquaintance, and Mrs. George 
Berkeley, who would be very glad to become your acquaint- 
ance, join in every possible kind wish for you. May a long 
and happy life lead you, through Redeeming mercy, to a 
longer happiness ! 

My time is short, and my spirits are depressed by the con- 
sideration of the loss I am to sustain. Dr. Johnson indeed 
was so good as to come on purpose to Canterbury to take 
leave of us, but unfortunately I was then on a visit to my 
parishioners. 

I am, with the truest respect, dear Doctor, 

Your faithful and affectionate brother, 

G. Berkeley. 

P. S. I have the comfort of being able to say that Dr. 
North is not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ in his ser- 
mons ; if there was a vacancy, I should be happy to see him 
our Metropolitan to-morrow. 

Dr. Johnson reached his family in Stratford on the 
1st of October, having been absent from the country 
for nearly five years. He found his aged father full 
of infirmities and bending to the grave, but read}^ to 
welcome him with a warm heart and a clear intellect. 
He had begun to feel that he might not live till his 
return, and therefore his joy was all the greater when 
he came and renewed with him the scenes through 
which he had passed, and the personal interviews 
with distinguished men, known to him hitherto only 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 345 

through the medium of their correspondence, their 
works, or their statesmanship. 

His measure of earthly happiness was now full, and 
he had no more for which to look forward in this 
life. He continued a little longer to use his pen, and 
write to his friends ; but his letters were those of one 
who seemed to be conscious that he was closing up 
his stewardship. The Bishop of London had sent 
him a brief communication by his son, which, though 
not inspiring him with any new hopes, was grate- 
fully received and resolutely answered. Its bur- 
den was the old obstacles to the American Episco- 
pate. 

Reverend Sir, — I cannot let your son leave this part 
of the world without taking the opportunity of writing a few 
lines to you in answer to your letter delivered to me by Mr. 
Marshall.^ The Society, entirely satisfied with the testimo- 
nial he has brought with him, and with the assurances of a 
sufficient allowance from the inhabitants of Woodbury, has 
recommended him to me for orders. And, as I am always 
unwilling to keep the candidates from America longer than 
is necessary, especially as their stay is attended with expense, 
I shall lose no time in ordaining Mr. Marshall, provided he 
is found, as I trust he will [be] , properly qualified for the 
profession. The character you give of him, with regard to 
his morals and behavior, will entitle him to some indulgence, 
if he has not made that progress in languages which we wish 
to find, though sometimes obliged to excuse, in our candi- 
dates. 

I feel as sensibly as you can wish me to do, the distress 
of the Americans m being obhged, at so much hazard and 

1 Rev. John R. Marshall, bred a merchant, and afterwards turning his attention to 
theology, pursued his studies under Dr. Johnson, and was licensed for Woodbury, 
Conn., by the Bishop of London, July 28, 1771. He received the degree of M. A. 
honoris causa, from King's College, N. Y., 1773. 



348 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

expense, to come to this country for orders. But I own I 
see no prospect of a speedy remedy to it. They who are en- 
emies to the measure of an Episcopacy, whether on your part 
of the globe or ours, have hitherto found means to prevent 
its taking place. Though no measure can be better suited 
to every principle of true policy, none can be more consist- 
ent with every idea I have formed of truly religious liberty. 
We want no other motive for declaring our sentiments and 
wishes on the subject, but what arise from the expediency, 
I had almost said, the necessity of putting the American 
Church upon a more respectable plan by the appointment of 
a Bishop. But whatever are our sentiments or wishes, we 
must leave it to the discretion and wisdom of Government to 
choose the time for adopting that measure. Whether w^e 
shall live to see that day, is in the hands of God alone. We 
wish only that we could look forward with pleasure and en- 
joy the thought. 

Accept, sir, my best wishes for everything which may con- 
tribute to your health and happiness, and assure yourself 
that I am, with great truth and sincerity. 

Your affectionate brother, 

Ric. London. 

FuLHAM, July 22, 1771, 

In replying to this letter, Johnson affirmed that no 
one could be more concerned than he that the Church 
should always, as far as possible, have a learned min- 
istry ; but in such a country as America then was, 
much learning could not ordinarily be expected. He 
was glad his Lordship felt so sensibly " the distress 
of Americans " on being without Bishops, and apolo- 
gizing for the importunity of his brethren in Con- 
necticut, who, contrary to his advice, had made an- 
other address for them, he asked : " Is the case 
incurable ? Is there no remedy ? Must we forever 
go a thousand leagues for every ordination ? Can it 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 347 

be that the English Government should suffer such 
an encroachment upon Christian liberty to the Eng- 
lish Church in any part of its dominions ? I foresee," 
he continued, " fearful consequences, political as well 
as religious, that will inevitably follow it." If there 
was no jDrospect of relief, if all hope and dependence 
on England must be relinquished, he thought that a 
number of the clergy would be disposed to apply to 
some other Episcopal Church — perhaps the Mora- 
vian — to give them Bishops, " being conscientiously 
persuaded that Episcopacy, such as it was in St. Cyp- 
rian's time, was the only form of government that 
the Apostles established in the Church." 

The following reply to Dr. Berkeley, if not his last 
letter to England, was his last to that devoted friend 
of his son and of the American Church. It shows 
the depth of his feelings, and the great thought which 
ever rose in his mind as he turned to survey " the 
branch of God's planting " in this land. 

November 10, 1771. 

Reverend and most dear Sir, — I am most intensely 
thankful to our good God that he hath so graciously preserved 
my dear son to me and his family, and us to him through 
his long absence and many dangers, and at length restored 
him to us and given us to rejoice together in all the great 
goodness of his kind Providence both towards him and us. 
And now I return my most affectionate thanks to your very 
excellent mother and lady and dear sons for the great kindness 
and affection wherewith you have treated him in his absence 
from us. May my God abundantly reward all your good- 
ness and beneficence. 

I was much grieved for the miscarriage of your kind an- 
swer to my last letter, wherein you opened your mind with 
so much freedom. I thank you for it, though I had it not, 



348 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

and I could wisli you yet to give me a short recapitulation of 
it. I am unwilling to give up all hopes of seeing you in 
America, at least of your being our first Bishop, for then I 
could trust that we should set out upon the foot of true, gen- 
uine, primitive Christianity ; and if you be not yourself the 
man, I beg of you through your whole life strongly to inter- 
est yourself in our affairs, and so far as is possible to influence 
that we may have one or more Bishops, and that they be 
true, primitive Christians ; otherwise, if they are mere men 
of this world, we are indeed better without them. 

I rejoice and bless God that there is one such in these 
abandoned times as Bishop North, and he so young, too, and 
that of a noble family. Such an one is a phoenix indeed. 
I desire you, if you think proper, to give my dutiful compli- 
ments to him, and let him know that, as I am the oldest of 
the clergy here, I humbly beg he would pity our deplorable 
condition in being obHged to go a thousand leagues for every 
ordination, and use all the influence in his power without 
ceasing, till we are provided with a Bishop to ordain and 
govern the clergy here. I earnestly pray God to bless you, 
my dear sir, and that worthy lady your mother, together 
with your lady and dear offspring, with all the blessings of 
this life, and that we may all at length be happy together in 
a better world, I am, etc. 

Nearly forty years before, when Dean Berkeley was 
promoted to the see of Cloyne, Johnson wrote to a 
London friend, expressing his joy at the appointment, 
but regretting that it had not been an English Bish- 
opric, for then, he said, " he would have been in the 
way of being more useful to the Church in these parts 
of the world." The zealous son was untiring in his 
efforts to prosecute what the father could really do 
nothing towards accomplishing, and, at a later day, 
was of personal service to Dr. Seabury in securing his 
consecration to the Apostolic office from a church 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 349 

north of the Tweed, where there were no State oaths 
to hamper the httle college of bishops, and no silken 
cord binding together the crown and the crosier.^ 

The waning year brought peace and quietness to 
Johnson. He left his parochial duties chiefly to the 
care of his assistant, and while he lived in the scenes 
and recollections of the past rather than in the dis- 
tractions and political uncertainties of the present, he 
did not forget the nearness of the end, much less con- 
template it with indifference. He often wished for a 
peaceful exit, and prayed that his death might re- 
semble that of his good friend. Bishop Berkeley. 
Though apparently little indisposed, yet finding his 
strength to be failing him, on the morning of January 
6, 1772, he conversed calmly with his family upon 
the subject of his departure, said that he was " going 
home," and then sank to rest quietly, so as the " Lord 
giveth his beloved sleep." An extract from the letter 
Avhich his son wrote to Bishop Lowth a week after the 
event, furnishes a good description of his last mo- 
ments. 

v' 

Stratfoud in Connecticut, January 13, 1772. 

My Lord, — I did myself the honor to write your Lord- 
ship a short letter on my arrival in tliis country, acknowl- 
edging the honor of your favor of the 29th of June, from 
Cuddesden, which I received just as 1 left London ; and pre- 
senting to your Lordship mine and my good father's duty. 

I have now the misfortune to inform your Lordship of the 
departure of my father, who left us the morning of the Epiph- 
any full of faith and hope, and we doubt not has entered 
into the joy of our Lord. He died as he had Uved, with 
great composure and serenity of mind, and had just such a 

1 Rev. Samuel Seabury, D. D., was publicly consecrated Bishop of Connecticut 
at Aberdeen, on Sunday, the 14th of November, 1784. 



350 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

transition as one would wish for his best friend. He often 
wished, and repeated it the morning of his departure, that he 
might resemble in his death his friend, the late excellent 
Bishop Berkeley, whose virtues he labored to imitate in his 
life, and Heaven heard his prayer ; for, like him, he expired 
sitting up in his chair, without a struggle or a groan. It 
would be very inexcusable in me to trouble your Lordship 
with this minute account, were it not also my duty to ac- 
quaint your Lordship, that from the great satisfaction and im- 
provement he had received from your writings, my father 
had often assured me since my return that he had the great- 
est respect, veneration, and esteem for your Lordship, of any 
man now living. That respect and esteem, give me leave to 
say, will live in his family and among all his acquaintance, 
upon whom he sought to inculcate it 

The funeral of Dr. Johnson took place at Stratford 
two days after his decease, and the clergy from the 
neighboring towns were present ; one of whom, the 
Rev. Jeremiah Learning of Norwalk, delivered a ser- 
mon in commemoration of his acquirements and Chris- 
tian character. His long tried and particular friend, 
the Rev. John Beach of Newtown, had been selected 
for this office, but want of health prevented his at- 
tendance at the funeral, though the sermon which he 
prepared was afterwards preached and published. It 
dwelt largely upon the wisdom of diverting the 
stream of our thoughts from this visible world to 
eternal things, and contained tributes to the memory 
of the great man, which were neither fanciful nor un- 
deserved. " With much satisfaction," said he, " and 
the recollection of many advantages I have received, 
I call to mind the acquaintance which I have had 
with this excellent divine for more than fifty-five 
years ; and without an hyperbole, I may say it, I 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 351 

know not that ever I conversed with him without 
finding myself afterwards the better for it. He had 
from his youth devoted himself to the sacred minis- 
try, and the studies which qualify for it he followed 
with unwearied application, which a firm constitution 
enabled him to pursue even in old age," He closed 
a description of his intellectual attainments with these 
words : " The sum is this ; he was the most excellent 
scholar, and most accomplished divine, that this col- 
ony ever had to glory in, and what is infinitely more 
excellent, he was an eminent Christian." 

Other memorial sermons were preached, one by 
the Rev. Mr. Inglis in Trinity Church, New York, 
where his name was held in grateful remembrance 
for services rendered to the parish, and to the college 
with which the parish was in a measure identified. 
The loss of such a guiding light was felt by the de- 
pressed Church of England in this country, especially 
in the Northern colonies, and no pen of equal zeal, 
ability, and influence, was ready to take up the corres- 
pondence which he had so long conducted with Brit- 
ish minds interested in the progress of Christianity 
on the American continent. The times grew more 
eventful, and soon the troubles which produced the 
Revolution interrupted communication, and sadder 
than all the days before were those which came to 
the supporters of Episcopacy. 

" As to Dr. Johnson's person," says Chandler, " he 
was rather tall, and, in the latter part of his life, con- 
siderably corpulent. There was something in his 
countenance that was pleasing and familiar, and that 
indicated the benevolence of his heart ; and yet, at 
the same time it was majestic, and commanded re- 



352 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

spect. He had a ruddiness of complexion, which was 
the effect of natural constitution, and was sometimes 
farther brightened by a peculiar briskness in the cir- 
culation of his spirits, brought on by the exercise of 
the benevolent affections." ^ 

Frequent reference has been made in this volume 
to his autobiography, which he began in the seven- 
tieth year of his age, and completed after the return 
of his son from England. It was written in the third 
person, and is entitled, " Memoirs of the Life of the 
Rev. Dr. Johnson, and several Things relating to the 
state both of Religion and Learning in his Times." 
This manuscript with other papers was confided to 
the Rev. Dr. Chandler of Elizabethtown, and liberty 
given him to use them freely in preparing a more 
elaborate account of the life and character of his ever 
honored friend and patron. The colonial disturb- 
ances thickened, and even before the work was ready 
for the press, the son wrote to Dr. Chandler express- 
ing his fears about publishing : ''1 am at a loss what 
to say upon the subject. On the one hand, I should 
be extremely glad to have anything published which 
would subserve the general interest of the Church of 
England, and tend to do honor to the memory of my 
father, and I know you will render whatever you pub- 
lish as perfect and unexceptionable as possible. On 
the other hand, the age is so captious and so glutted 
with publications of every kind, and we have so 
many malicious adversaries working and watching for 
every circumstance of which they may take advan- 
tage, and upon which to ground a controversy or ex- 
cite a clamor, that I am sometimes in doubt whether 
it be best to publish anything of this kind or not." 

1 Life of Johnson, p. 126. 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 353 

Prudent friends advised delay, — among them Mr. 
Beach of Newtown, who, in September 1774, wrote to 
the hesitating son, who had placed the manuscript in 
his hands, and asked his opinion : "I should think 
that it might be obvious to the slightest observer, 
that this day of rage and madness is not the most 
favorable for publications of this nature.^' ^ 

He had full liberty to communicate this opinion to 
Dr. Chandler, and in doing so he expressed his own 
concurrence in it, and added : " I am further confirmed 
in this idea from the insolent spirit which is lately ex- 
cited against the professors of the Church of Eng- 
land, particularly throughout New England, from an 
apprehension that we are not sufficiently zealous in 
the cause of American liberty. A publication of this 
kind would on that account, I have no doubt, be 
particularly obnoxious at this juncture, and had bet- 
ter be postponed to some more favorable opportunity. 
For these reasons, I have not read the papers with 
a view to any corrections or additions, as I should 
have done, had I conceived it advisable to publish. 
As you proposed to transcribe the work again, I have 
returned the original memoir." 

Dr. Chandler was soon after forced by the outbursts 
of popular fury to quit his parish, and with Dr. 
Cooper of New York sailed for England. Probably 
he never found time to transcribe his manuscript, and 
the wonder is how it escaped the many perils to 
which it was subjected on his journeys. ^ It fell at 
length into the hands of his son-in-law,^ who pub- 
lished it more than thirty years after its preparation, 

1 See History of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, vol. i. pp. 296, 297. 

2 See Appendix B. 

3 Rt. Rev. John Henry Hobart, D. D., third Bishop of New York. 

23 



354 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE 

in a small duodecimo volume of one hundred and 
fifty pages, besides an appendix containing a few let- 
ters ; and he took care to mention in his preface 
that " however humble may be the early annals of 
his country, they should be interesting to every 
American, and whatever tends to throw hght on them 
should be deemed worthy of preservation." 

The little volume embraced the substance of the 
autobiography, and is at best but a meagre sketch 
which did slender justice to the intellectual eminence 
and personal worth of Johnson. Had he lived in 
these times, he would have been distinguished among 
men of learning, and recognized by them as an hon- 
est and patient lover of truth and justice. That he 
attained to such excellence under all the disadvantages 
of the period in which he was a conspicuous actor, is 
remarkable. He dared to think for himself, and if 
his keen penetration discovered defects in theological 
and philosophical systems, he was careful not to ac- 
cept any new views until he had fairly examined the 
opposing arguments and tested them by the strong- 
est proofs within his reach. It was in this way that 
he " gradually exchanged the principles of the old 
philosophy for those of the Newtonian system," that 
he relinquished the rigid predestinarian tenets for 
what appeared to be more rational and Scriptural 
doctrines, and that he gave in his adhesion to the 
Church of England while there were many worldly 
motives leading him to cling to " the provincial 
standard of orthodoxy." 

As a preacher. Dr. Johnson, in the golden prime 
of his years, had attractive qualities. He himself 
said to his grandson towards the end of his days, 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 355 

that if he had been eminent for anything, it was for 
his eloquence. But eloquence has different forms 
of expression, and may not necessarily consist in 
studied rhetoric and passionate declamation. The 
power to interest and edify an audience, to move 
the heart and produce conviction, is a high intel- 
lectual quality, and the divine who possesses it, is 
in the truest sense of the word, eloquent. With 
a mind rich in theological lore, with clearness of 
method and plainness of speech, and with an ear- 
nest desire to promote the salvation of souls, John- 
son was a minister in the Church of Christ whom 
neither the learned nor the unlearned could hear 
without pleasure and profit. The people followed 
him for the Word's sake, and it is upon record that at 
Christmas and other high festivals, his house was 
thronged for successive days with worshippers from the 
adjacent towns, who came to Stratford to enjoy the 
benefit of his public and private ministrations. 

If he was great in pulpit eloquence and parochial 
duties, he was greater in his library and as an educa- 
tor in systematic divinity and the laws of ecclesiasti- 
cal polity. The Church in the northern portion of this 
country is largely indebted to him for training a gen- 
eration of clergymen, who, with rare exceptions, 
adorned their vocation, and left the impress of their 
characters upon the communities in which they were 
appointed to labor. It is something to be thankful 
for, that in its headless condition there was one who 
knew so well how to instruct and guide the young 
candidates for Holy Orders, and to send them forth 
with his own passport on their perilous voyage across 
the Atlantic. He had a nroibund sense of the grand- 



356 LIFE AND CORKESPONDENCE 

eur of the profession of a clergyman, and felt rightly 
enough that he could not be mistaken in educating 
those who came under his care, never to forget how 
their names were to become historic as pioneers of 
the Church in a new country, where all models of 
Christian character that did not approach the perfect 
ONE, would be despised or discredited. 

It was a frequent expression of his to speak of the 
age as " abandoned and apostatizing." He used it 
in reference to the tendency of the times to infidelity, 
and seemed to have no patience with those who were 
ready to exchange the beauty of the Christian life 
and the vitality of the Christian faith for the cold 
dreams and theories of men of reprobate minds. Up 
to his decease, there had been no writers against 
Divine Revelation in this country worthy of note, 
but there had been large importations of skeptical 
books, and not a little mischief had been wrought by 
their circulation. He made it his business to acquaint 
himself with all publications of this nature, that he 
might know how to disarm the enemy and meet the 
demand for unreasonable and impossible conditions of 
belief. The brightest minds among the Dissenters, 
however much they might differ from him on doc- 
trinal points and questions of ecclesiastical polity, made 
common cause with him in the defense of the foun- 
dations of our faith, and shared his anxiety to clear 
away the clouds of infidelity. They respected him 
for his learning and logical skill, and welcomed his 
system of philosophy as a most commendable effort 
in the interests and direction of the truth. 

A century has passed by and the new atheism of 
this day needs to be met with something besides the 



OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 357 

older works on Christian evidence. Bishop Butler, 
who spoke to the mind of the English nation, in his 
celebrated " Analogy," has never been answered, nor 
have the testimonies collected by Leland and Leslie ; 
but they are little read now, for modern infidelity 
addresses itself not so much to men of culture and 
refinement, as to the popular imagination, weaving 
itself into a miscellaneous literature, and at best pre- 
senting a masked portraiture of Christianity to blind 
the eyes of the unwary. 

Dr. Johnson trusted firmly in the Divine promises, 
and did not believe that " the motley crew of Deists, 
Socinians, Arians, and factious unbelievers " of his 
time, as the son of Bishop Berkeley termed them, 
could demolish what is founded on a rock. He de- 
fended the faith heroically, and trained others to im- 
itate himself, and be ready to " banish and drive 
away from the Church all erroneous and strange doc- 
trines contrary to God's word." His name will ever 
have an important place in American history, and 
the more his character is studied, the more it will be 
seen how he applied his learning and Christian phi- 
losophy to the good of his country, and the advance- 
ment of the " one Catholic and Apostolic Church," 
in whose bosom the Lord " has promised his blessing 
and life forevermore." 



APPENDIX. 



APPEI:q"DIX A. 



The following letter, an accurate copy of the original, ap- 
pears with slight variations in Bos well's " Life of Johnson." 
A foot-note credited to the " Gentleman's Magazine," states 
that " several letters passed between them, after the American 
Dr Johnson had returned to his native country ; of which, 
however, it is found that this is the only one remaining." 

It is " the only one " to which an answer has been found, 
and the answer is here printed for the first time from the 
original draught. He is known to have written one other 
letter, but probably the outbreak of the Revolution inter- 
rupted the correspondence. This was sent under cover, as 
appears from the filling up of the superscription, to Rev. Mr. 
White, afterwards Bishop of Pennsylvania, to whom the Eng- 
lish Dr. Johnson wrote the same date, saying : " I take the 
liberty which you give me, of troubling you with a letter, 
of which you will please fill up the direction." 

So highly did he esteem his American friend, that he pre- 
sented him, before leaving England, with an elegantly 
bound copy of his large foho Dictionary, third edition, 1765 ; 
and an engraving of himself, from a painting of Sir Joshua 
Reynolds, which he considered his best likeness. 

To Dk. Johnson : — 

Sir^ — Of all those whom the various accidents of life 
have brought within my notice, there is scarce any one whose 



SG2 APPENDIX. 

acquaintance I have more desired to cultivate than yours. I 
cannot indeed charge you with neglecting me, yet our mutual 
inclination could scarce gratify itself with opportunities ; 
the current of the day always bore us away from one an- 
other, and now the Atlantic is between us. 

Whether you carried away an impression of me as pleas- 
ing as that which you left me of yourself, I know not ; if you 
did, you have not forgotten me, and will be glad that I do not 
forget you. Merely to be remembered is indeed a barren 
pleasure, but it is one of the pleasures Avhich is more sensi- 
bly felt as human nature is more exalted. 

To make you wish that I should have you in my mind, I 
would be glad to tell you something which you do not know, 
but all public affairs are printed ; and as you and I had no 
common friends, I can tell you no private history. 

The Government I think grows stronger, but I am afraid 
the next general election will be a time of uncommon turbu- 
lence, violence, and outrage. 

Of Literature no great product has appeared, or is ex- 
pected ; the attention of the people has for some years been 
otherwise employed. 

I was told two daj^s ago of a design which must excite 
some curiosity. Two ships are [in] preparation, which are 
under the command of Captain Constantine Phipps, to ex- 
plore the Northern ocean, not to seek the Northeast or the 
Northwest passage, but to sail directly north, as near the 
pole as they can go. They hope to find an open ocean, but 
I suspect it is one mass of perpetual congelation. I do not 
much wish well to discoveries, for I am always afraid they 
will end in conquest and robbery. 

I have been out of order this winter, but am grown better. 
Can I ever hope to see you again ; or must I be always con- 
tent to tell you that in another hemisphere, 

I am, Sir, your most humble servant, 

Samuel Johnson. 

Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, London, March 4, 1773. 



APPENDIX. 363 

Stratford, June 5, 1773. 

Dear and respected Sir, — I am perfectly unable to 
express the grateful sense I have of the singular honor you 
have done me by your favor of the 4th of March. There was 
no man in England whose acquaintance I so much wished to 
be honored with when I first embarked in my late voyage. 
Your excellent writings had given me the highest veneration 
and esteem of your character. I waited some time for some 
accidental or favorable introduction to you, but when none 
offered, I presumed so much on the idea I had formed of you, 
that I at last ventured to introduce myself to you in the ab- 
rupt manner you remember. The kind and obliging recep- 
tion you then and ever after gave me, when I waited upon 
you, confirmed and increased my respect, and your kind re- 
membrance of me now lays me under such obligations as I 
must never hope to repay. To be remembered by one of the 
first characters of an age in which there are so few whose re- 
membrance is not rather a reproach than an honor, is, I as- 
sure you, to me one of the highest pleasures that I am capa- 
ble of. 

I bless God that at the date of your letter you were re- 
turning again to health, which I hope will be very long con- 
tinued to you not only for your own sake, but of human 
nature, which will be benefited by your labors, for you live 
not for yourself, but for all mankind. 

It will, I hope, be some satisfaction to you to know that 
your writings are in the highest esteem and are doing much 
good in this extensive and growing country, and will, I doubt 
not, continue to do so to very late posterity, for which reason, 
as well as for the increase of your reputation, which I assure 
you is very dear to me, I hope you will be still preparing 
something for the public, who will read with the utmost 
avidity whatever appears under the sanction of your name. 

It gives me great pleasure to learn from so good an au- 
thority that Government grows stronger. You had indeed 
convinced me that the alarm which the factious and the des- 
perate had excited was false, but I hardly expected when I 



364 APPENDIX. 

left England that Government would have obtained so 
speedy and so manifest a superiority over the friends of con- 
fusion, as, if \7e may credit the printed accounts, it seems to 
have done. From them it would seem as if the cause of op- 
position was almost desperate. It must be expected, how- 
ever, that every effort will be made to revive it against the 
next general election, and I wish your apprehensions may not 
be verified : but still I hope there is no gi'eat danger of their 
gaining so great advantages as to enable them to do much 
mischief to the public. Upon the stability of Government 
will depend also in a high degree the felicity of this country. 
The Government have much to do here when the opinion 
that has been maintained by the Boston Assembly [in] a 
late dispute with no opposition to their Governor, that the 
Colonies are independent of the Parliament of Great Britain, 
gains ground, and will require their attention unless they 
mean to acquiesce in the idea and give up their authority 
over us, which I presume they will not be inclined to do. 

The design you mention of exploring the Northern Ocean, 
is an experiment of great curiosity, and I shall be impatient 
to know the success of it. I have ever entertained the opin- 
ion you seem to have adopted that the Pole is the empire of 
frost and snow, which will effectually forever stop the gains 
from those evils which, as you justly remark, have generally 
been the consequence of discoveries. Neither ambition nor 
avarice, I fancy, will there have any opportunity for grat- 
ification ; we shall only acquire an innocent and perhaps use- 
less acquaintance with an unknown part of our globe. 

I wish I could gratify you with any intelligence from this 
side of the Atlantic; but nothing occurs to me worthy of . 
your notice. I have lost since my return to America my 
venerable father, who, to his other good qualities, added a 
sincere respect and esteem for you, and was extremely minute 
and particular in his inquiries concerning you. We had the 
happiness to spend three months together after my return, 
when he expired full of days, satisfied with life, with hopes 
full of immortality, and without a groan or any apparent 
previous pain. 



APPENDIX. 365 

For myseK I am again engaged largely in the busy, and in 
this country not very profitable profession of the law, which, 
however, answers tolerably well for the support of the numer- 
ous young family with which God has blessed me. That you 
ma}^ enjoy every felicity, and long, very long continue as you 
have done to bless mankind, be useful to the world, is and 
will be the sincere and ardent prayer of, dear Sir, 

Your most obedient and most faithful humble servant, 

Wm. Saiviuel Johnson. 

To Dh. Samuel Johnson. 

Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, London. 



APPEISTDIX B. 



Elizabethtown, June 20, 1774. 

My dear Sie, — The not seeing you on your return from 
Philadelphia last winter, was a considerable disappointment 
to me, as I partly depended upon your spending a day here, 
that we might have time to read over, while together, the 
" Life " of your father which I had compiled a year before. 
If I could have consented to send it to the press without your 
inspection and examination, it would have been published 
long ago, but I have all along been impressed with a strong 
sense both of your right to be consulted, and of the advant- 
age which the work would receive from your correction, and 
" perhaps from your addition, which has hitherto, and will still 
cause me to suppress it, till it can be honored with your Im- 
primatur. With a view chiefly to this I have proposed from 
time to time, to take a journey into New England ; but diffi- 
culties have as often arisen to interrupt me. Once indeed, I 
could have come, but I recollected that you must then be en- 
gaged in attendance upon the General Court at Hartford, 
and consequently would not be at leisure, nor at home to 
consider matters of a literary nature. As, therefore, I have 
no prospect of going your way, and hear not of your intend- 
ing to come this way, during the present summer, I have 
determined to send you, as I am like to have no opportunity 
of bringing, the rough copy of the " Life ; " requesting you 
to examine it very closely, and to make such corrections upon 
any parts of it as may occur upon a careful perusal. I ex- 
pect Mr. Beach to call upon me in an hour or two in his 
way to New England, by whom I propose to send it ; and if 



APPENDIX. 367 

you can be ready to return it by him,i it vnll be so much the 
better. 

I shall send with it your father's MS. that you may com- 
pare them together. On that comparison you will find that 
I have used it only as a guide, preserving the facts in their 
chronological order, adding many anecdotes collected from 
other quarters, and some of them recollected from what I 
formerly knew, and expressing the whole in my own lan- 
guage. This I thought would better answer the general de- 
sign than confining myself more strictly to the MS. I have 
concluded the whole with a portrait of the character of my 
beloved patron and friend. I could wish to do it justice ; in 
order to which I would neither say too much nor too little. 
As I find that private affection is apt to predominate, I have 
endeavored to be on my guard, in this part, which is by far 
the most difficult of the whole. Be so good, therefore, as to 
bestow a particular attention to this part, and advise and 
assist me in it with all freedom. 

In transcribing for the press, I fancy I can make some con- 
siderable improvements, especially by way of notes. I have, 
as you will see, made some references to authors, extracts 
from which are intended for that use. 

As soon as you return the " Life," I think of issuing Pro- 
posals to see what encouragement can be procured for a pub- 
lication of this nature. New England, and especially Con- 
necticut, I flatter myself, will subscribe liberally to the work. 
New York may be expected to do something, and the Colo- 
nies to the southward of it but very little. With right man- 
agement I should imagine a pretty large subscription may be 
procured ; in which case I may save myself here, although I 
have lost money by every former publicatloli I have been 
concerned in. If you think proper, I will try what encour- 
agement can be had for a volume of your father's sermons, 
towards which but little can be expected this way. When 1 
have done what I have to do, I will return you all the papers, 

1 Rev. Abraham Beach, then Missionary of the Church of England at New Bruns- 
wick, and afterwards assistant minister of Trinity Church, New York. 



368 APPENDIX. 

letters, etc., which you were so good as to transmit to me • 
but while anything is depending, it is best that they should 
remain in my hands ; for which reason I must desire you to 
send back the original MS., from which the " Life " is chiefly 
compiled. 

By so good an opportunity I shall send a copy of my " Free 
Examination," etc., of which I request your acceptance. A 
few copies were subscribed for, and five or six paid for in 
Connecticut ; but as strange as it may seem, I have not been 
able to get them sent. Gaine says it has not been possible 
to procure a binder to do them up in New York, as every 
person of that occupation was previously engaged in other 
business ; however, he now promises that they shall be for- 
warded very soon. A copy arrived in England about the be- 
ginning of April ; and the Bishops, etc., ordered the sub- 
tance of my " Free Examination," together with Sherlock's 
" Memorial," to be immediately reprinted there, imagining it 
might be of service at that critical time when a plan was un- 
der consideration for the future regulation of the Colonies. 
Lord Dartmouth took up the cause of the Church, and ap- 
pointed to meet, and consult with the Bishop of London 
about the Episcopate requested. He thought of bringing the 
case immediately before the Parliament ; but the Bishop of 
Oxford was of opinion that the Parliament had no business 
with it, and that it was best to wait for the event of the Bos- 
ton Expedition. 

With compliments to Mrs. Johnson, Mr. Kneeland, and 
your families, 

I am, with great truth and sincerity. 

Your very respectful and obedient servant, 

Thomas B. Chandler. 

Dr. Johnson. 

After the Revolution and the settlement of the Govern- 
ment, he wrote again in answer to a request for the return of 
the papers as follows : — 



APPENDIX 369 

Elizabethtown, DecemSe?- 28, 1785. 

My deae Sm, — Although I do and always shall think 
myself honored and obliged by every line I may receive from 
you, yet I am ashamed that I have given occasion for that of 
the 21st instant, by not sending you, or at least, not giving 
you some satisfaction concerning the papers of your most ex- 
cellent father, my ever honored friend and patron. I am 
ashamed too, that I have not sooner returned the " Journal " 
of the Convention in Virginia, which you kindly put into my 
hands on my first arrival in New York. These neglects will 
not admit of a full justification, yet I beg you to allow as 
much as you can to the following apology. 

To a person of my disposition, and in my situation, it was 
impossible, for a considerable while after I got home, to attend 
to any matters of business excepting that kind of business 
mentioned by Sir T. Moore ; nempe reverse domum, cum 
uxore fahulandum est, garrendum cum liberis, colloquendum 
cum ministris. Quae ego omnia inter negotia numero. As 
soon as I was able to attend to other matters, I found my 
books and papers in such confusion and so widely dispersed, 
many of them being still in New York, and in different 
hands there, that it was the work of much time to collect 
and arrange them. When I had got together the bigger 
part of your father's sermons, letters, etc., considering that 
everything of the kind must be peculiarly agreeable to the 
family, I meant to send them to you in New York, but, upon 
inquiry, was informed that you were gone into the country. 
Mr. Beach paid me a visit about the 10th of November, and 
then informed me that you were not in town. Since that 
time I have had the same answer to the same question, and 
did not know of your return, till I learned it from your letter. 
I shall now soon send you, to the care of Mr. Livingston, 
the various articles I have collected, they being, in my opin- 
ion, too bulky to go by post, unless divided into different 
parcels. Most of the Sermons and Letters I have found, and 
am not without hopes of finding the remainder. As to the 
" Memoir," I took it with me to England, imagining it would 
24 



370 APPENDIX. 

be safer with me, though subject to the perils of the sea, than 
if left behind, "in perils among false brethren." I brought 
it back with me in good preservation. 

I have taken the liberty of inclosing a letter for Bishop Sea- 
bury, and must beg the favor of your passport for it. I now 
return the " Journal " of the Convention in Virginia. I had 
hardly time to read it in New York, and I brought it over 
with me, that I might be able to give a better account of the 
transactions to some people in England, in letters which I 
was a long time in writing. After making this use of it, I 
meant to send it with the other papers ; and for the reasons 
assigned above, this part of my intention has not sooner been 
carried into execution. In the meanwhile, I hope you have 
not suffered greatly for want of this curious publication. A 
curiosity indeed it is for it exhibits such a motley mixture of 
Episcopacy, Presbytery and Ecclesiastical Republicanism as 
before was never brought together and incorporated, and 
must surprise the whole Christian world. 

The proceedings of the Convention in Philadelphia, which 
is to be considered as a kind of (Ecumenical Council, were 
much in the same style, though not so wild and intemperate. 
In their Address to the English Archbishops, they say that 
it is " their earnest desire and resolution to retain the vener- 
able form of Episcopal government ; " and yet they have 
placed their Church under a government that is evidently 
Presbyterian. Conventions, consisting of ministers and lay- 
elders, or messengers (no matter by what name they are 
called), are to meet without the call or license of the Bishop ; 
it does not appear that he is to have any negative upon their 
proceedings, or even to preside ex officio ; and, in case of his 
delinquency, he is to be arraigned before the tribunal of his 
own presbyters, etc., who have a power to displace him. 
They expect the Bishops in England to countenance this new- 
fangled Episcopate ; but, from what I know of them, I can 
hardly believe that they will be aiding to a scheme formed 
with a design to degrade the Episcopal order by depriving it 
of that authority which it has ever claimed and exercised as 



APPENDIX. 371 

an essential and unalienable right, since the time of the 
Apostles. 

In Connecticut the Church has proceeded upon other 
maxims, and merits the approbation and applause of all the 
friends of genuine Episcopacy. I wish that so fair and 
proper an example may still, if possible, be followed in the 
other States. The more I consider the matter, the more I 
am pleased, that, as yet, you have made no alterations in 
the Liturgy, but such as are necessary to accommodate it to 
the change of Government. 

You are pleased to intimate an inclination or wish to make 

me a visit. I should be extremely happy in seeing you here, 

and in giving you the best reception in my power ; and I 

shall rejoice in every kind of opportunity of proving myself 

to be, with peculiar esteem and respect. 

Your very affectionate humble servant, 

T. B. Chandler. 
Dr. W. S. Johnson. 



INDEX. 



Abbot, Mr., 44. 
Addison, 68. 

"Alciphron, or the Minute Philoso- 
pher," 76, 83. 
Allison, Mr., 166, 172. 
American Bishops, 276, 281, 297, 315, 

316, 324-326, 341. 
American Church, 342, 347. 
American Episcopate, 228, 314, 315, 

325, 326, 345, 367, 369. 
Ames's " Medulla Theologise," 5. 
Amherst, Jeffery, 257. 
Andrew, Samuel, 8, 11. 
Anson, Lord, 263. 
Aplin, Mr., 277, 278. 
Apthorp, Rev. East, 243, 245, 250, 275, 

283, 297, 303 ; letter of, 284, 285 ; 

removal to England, and death, 285. 
Archer, Mr., 26. 
Arianism, 84. 
Arians, 29,31. 
Arminianism, 89. 
Arnold, Rev. Jonathan, 85, 93, 99- 

101 ; will and death of, 94, 95. 
Ashton, Dr., 49. 
Assembly, Massachusetts, 300. 
Assembly, New York, 192, 193, 195, 

197. 
Astry, Dr. Francis, 27, 28, 30, 36, 40, 

101, 117, 213, 215, 216; letter of, 

106, 107. 
Athanasian Creed, 124. 
Atterbury, Dr. Francis, Bishop of 

Rochester, 34, 44. 
Auchmuty, Rev. Samuel, 289, 292, 

296, 301. 



B. 



Bacon, Lord, 6. 
Baile, Dr., 43. 
Baker, Mr., 40, 

Barclay, Rev. Henry, 255, 277, 279, 
283, "293, 296 ; letter of, 195-197. 



Barclay, Mr. P., 97. 

Barrett, Mr., 281, 294. 

Barrow, Isaac, 13. 

Barrowby, Dr., 42. 

Beach, Rev. Abraham, 366, 368. 

Beach, Rev. John, 122, 198, 199, 237, 
272, 276, 350, 353; conforms to 
Episcopacy, 87, 88. 

Beach, William, 88, 265 ; his widow, 

■ 265. 

Beadle, Mr., 50. 

Bearcroft, Mr., 34 ; Secretary of the 
Society, 112, 176, 211, 213, 216, 238, 
244. 

Bedford, Duke of, 281, 295. 

Bell, Mr. and family, 319, 320. 

Bennet College Library, 50. 

Bennet, Dr., 43, 51, 52. 

Bennet, Mr., and Mohawk Indians, 
284. 

Benson, Dr. Martin, Bishop of Glouces- 
ter, 86, 103, 104 ; letter of, 93, 94. 

Bentley, Dr., 50. 

Berkeley, George, Dean of Derry, 55, 
68, 88 ; arrival at Newport, 67 ; 
charter for Bermuda College, 69; 
marriage, 70 ; letters to Johnson, 71- 
81, 154, 155, 169-171 ; gifts to Yale 
College, 77-81, 98, 99, 202; Bishop 
of Cloyne, 82 ; Philosophy, 82, 83, 
130,131, 136, 141-143; "Treatise on 
Tar Water," 132 ; mentions of, 157, 
169, 187, 228, 230, 294, 317, 329, 
348-350, 357 ; Mrs. Berkeley, 344 ; 
removal to Oxford, 172 ; death, 173, 
174. 

Berkelev, Rev. George, 80, 172, 228, 
271, 290, 305, 317, 323, 329, 357 ; 
letters to Johnson, 174-176, 327, 
328, 342-344 ; meditates visit to 
America, 341 ; Mrs. George Berke- 
ley, 344. 

Bermuda College, 55, 68, 76, 79, 326. 

Berriman, Rev. John, 27, 33, 40, 42, 
45, 48, 51, 127, 213, 222; letters to 



0/4 



INDEX. 



Johnson, 55, 56, 83, 84, 86, 95, 96, 
176, 177. 

Berriman, Dr., William, 27, 30, 33, 35, 
43, 45, 49, 51, 53. 

Biss, Dr. Thomas, 29. 

Blackburn, Dr., Archbishop of York, 86. 

Blackett, Sir Edward, 27. 

Book of Common Prayer, 12. 

Boston Expedition, 367. 

Boswell's " Life of Johnson," 361. 

Bourbon, House of, 327. 

Bourk, Mr., 169, 170. 

Bowers, Bishop, 45. 

Bowers, Mr., 28. 

Bowyers, Jonah, 36, 43, 44. 

Boyle, 5. 

Bradshaw, Dr., Bishop of Bristol, 56. 

Bramston, Mr., 27. 

Brazenose College, 90. 

Bridger, Mr., 27, 28, 32, 34, 41. 

Bristow, Eev. Dr., 223, 241. 

British Parliament, 326, 342, 

Brown, Daniel, 7, 28, 30, 227 ; tutor 
in college, 9, 10, 14 ; declares for 
Episcopacy, 18-20 ; goes to England, 
23 ; baptism of, 34 ; confirmation, 
and ordination, 36, 37 ; sickness, 
38 ; death and burial, 40, 41. 

Brown, Rev. Isaac, 83. 

Buckingham, Thomas, 8. 

Buckridge, Mr., 27, 34. 

Bull, Mr., 37. 

Bull, George, 13, 63. 

Burnet, Gilbert, Bishop of Sarum, 13, 
60. 

Burnet, Wm., Governor of New York, 
60 ; letter of, 61, 62. 

Burrough, Dr., 33. 

Burton, Rev. John, 47, 90, 176, 292. 

Bushnell, Francis, 2. 

Butler, Bishop, "Analogy," 357. 



C. 



Camm, Eev. Mr., 324. 

Camp, Rev. Ichabod, 170. 

Caner, Mr. Henry, 9. 

Caner, Rev. Henry, 93, 105, 145, 273, 

274, 277-279, 283, 296. 
Caner, Rev. Richard, 105, 106 ; death 

of, 107. 
Cardel, Isaac, 34. 
Cardel, Mrs., 48. 
Carleton, Mr., 40. 
Carter, Lady, 312. 
Carter, Mr., 36, 37, 43. 
Carteret, 68. 

" Cases of Conscience," 5. 
Cathedral of Canterbury, 26. 



Chambers, Mr., 196, 197. 

Champion, Mr., 42. 

Chandler, Dr. Samuel, 281. 

Chandler, T. B., 199, 272, 277, 279, 
283, 296, 312, 351 ; " Life of Johnson," 
20, 52, 64, 352-354; "Appeal," 314, 
316, 325 ; letters of, 94, 365-370. 

Channing, Dr., 222. 

Chapman, Daniel, 4. 

Charles I., 28, 54. 

Charlton, Mr., 277. 

Chatham, Lord, 339, 340. 

Chauncy, Dr. Charles, 311, 314, 315, 
325. 

Checkley, Mr. John, 28, 30, 31, 36, 40, 
43, 45, 55, 177 ; missionary at Provi- 
dence, 95,97; writings and death, 97. 

Chilling-worth, 75 

Chishul, Dr., 31, 33. 

Church in America, 93, 116, 117, 179, 
211-213, 228, 253, 283, 293, 321, 324, 
342, 346, 347, 351, 367. 

Church of England, 7-14, 16, 23, 77, 
85, 107, 110, 111, 193, 201, 202, 204, 
258, 259, 322, 352-354; in Con- 
necticut, 54, 87, 98, 165, 254, 272, 293, 

Churchmen in Connecticut, 98, 100. 

Clap, Rev. Thomas, 79, 103, 105, 123. 
170, 171, 200, 205, 209. 

Clarendon, Earl of, 35. 

Clark, Dr. Samuel, 36, 61, 62, 86 
122, 234. 

Clavering, Dr., 56. 

Codrington College, 282. 

Coldbatch, Dr., 43. 

Colden, Cadwallader, 129; letters to 
Johnson, 129, 130, 132, 133, 135- 
137, 140-142, 181-184. 

Colden, Elizabeth, 183. 

Colgan, Rev. Thomas, 215. 

College in New York, 189-194, 209; 
chartered, 195. 

Collegiate School, 8. 

Collins, Anthony, 64. 

Colman, Dr. Benjamin, 126, 145 ; 
letter of, 123-125. 

Colton, Rev. Jonathan, 170. 

Commissary for Connecticut, 116. 

Congress of the Colonies, 299, 300. 

Connecticut Clergy, 99, 116, 297, 346. 

Connecticut Colony, 4, 202, 310. 

Conybeare, Mr., 46. 

Cook, Rev. Samuel, 121. 

Cooper, Rev. Myles, 249, 267, 271, 273, 
287, 291, 300, 312-314, 353. 

Coram, Mr. Thomas, 27. 

Court of Great Britain, 310. 

Crawley, Mr., 40. 

Cross, Dr., 49, 50. 



INDEX. 



375 



Crow, Rev. Mr., 33. 

Cruger, John, 197. 

Cudworth, Dr., 230. 

Cummin, Mr., 29. 

Cuthbert, Rev. Mr., 23. 

Cutler, Rev. John, 97, 165, 218, 220. 

Cutler, Rev. Timothy, Rector of Yale 
College, 11 ; declares for Episco- 
pacy, 18; embarks for England, 23 ; 
sickness, 30 ; baptism, 35 : confirma- 
tion and ordination, 36, 37 ; men- 
tions of, 34, 38, 40, 43, 52, 54, 55 ; 
65, 86, 90, 91, 95, 114, 145, 221 ; 
death of son, 101. 

Cutting, Mr. Leonard, 232, 233, 241, 
247, 250. 

Cyprian, S. 17, 22. 



D. 



Dal.ton, Mr., 70, 342. 

Dartmouth, Lord, 367. 

Davenport, James, 113. 

Dawes, Sir William, Archbishop of 
York, 28, 29. 

Dawson, Dr., 52. 

Deists, 357. 

De Lancey, James, Lieutenant-gov- 
ernor of "New York, 216, 233, 253. 

De Lancey, Peter, 182, 183. 

De Lancey, William Heathcote, first 
Bishop of Western New York, 184. 

Delaunc, Dr., 47, 48. 

Descartes, 5, 74. 

Dickens, Dr., 49, 50. 

Dickinson, Rev. Jonathan, 97, 120, 121, 
274. 

Dissenters, 103, 179, 199, 202, 206, 207, 
212, 245, 276, 281, 282, 294, 295, 302, 
312, 314, 324, 341, 356. 

Dobson, Dr., 46-48, 

Dommer, Mr., 29. 

Dove, Mr., 166-168. 

Dummer, Jeremiah, 7, 31, 202. 

Dutch Church, 190, 196, 197. 

Dwight, Timothy, President, 80. 



E. 



Echard's " Church History," 13. 

Egremont, Lord, 277. 

" Eleraenta Philosophica," 172, 174- 
181. 

Eliot, Jared, teacher at Guilford, ; - ; 
minister at East Guilford, 14; men- 
tion of, 18,20, 79, 102. 

Ellis, Dr., 230. 

EUotson, Mr., 35. 

Episcopacy, 88, 97, 275, 299, 346, St7, 



351, 369, 370; in America, 256; in 

Connecticut, 95. 
Episcopal Indian School, 303, 309. 
Estwick, Mr., 43. 
Ewer, Dr., Bishop of Llandaff, sermon, 

100,311. 



F. 



Faden, W., 307, 318. 

Fayerweather, Rev. Samuel, 213, 214, 

216-218 ; letter of, 220, 224, 226. 
Felton, Dr., 47, 48. 
Finch, Mr., 42. 
Fisk, Phineas, 5. 
Fleming, Dr., 86. 
Floyd, Col. Richard, 57. 
Forbes, Lord President, 127, 186, 234. 
Forster, John, 70. 
Fosset, Rev. Mr., 49. 
Fowle, Rev. Mr., 213. 
Foxcroft, Thomas, 120. 
Francis, Mr., 157, 159, 160, 162, 168. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 153, 169, 187, 308 ; 

letters to Johnson, 157-160, 162-166, 

172, 173, 180, 181. 
Eraser's " Life of Berkeley," 175. 
" Free Examination," 367. 
Free Thinking, 81, 148, 151. 
Frink, Mr., 277, 278. 



G. 



Gaine, Mr., 367. 

Gardiner, Dr., 118. 

Gastrel, Dr., Bishop of Chester, 47. 

General Assembly, 8, 10, 19; of Con- 
necticut, 100, 335 ; of Scotland, 211, 
301. 

" Gentleman's Magazine," 361. 

George III., 255. 

Gibbs, Rev. Willie j, 213. 

Gibson, Dr. Edmund, Bishop of Lon- 
don, 42, 43, 48, 56, 303. 

Giles, Rev. Mr., 301, 307. 

Godly, Rev. Mr., 37. 

Gold, Mr. Hezekiah, 108 ; letter to 
Johnson, 110, 111. 

Gooch, Dr., 96. 

Gosling, Mr., 26, 43. 

Gosling, Mr. Jr., 26, 212. 

Governors of King's College, 286-289. 

Graham, Rev. John, 88, 89. 

Grafton, Duke of, 339. 

Grandorgh, 26, 31. 

Green, Dr. Thomas, Bishop of Nor- 
wich, 35-37. 

Greenaway, Mr., 47, 48. 

Gregson, Mr., 30. 



376 



INDEX. 



Gregson, Thomas, 100. 
Grenville, Mr., 302. 
Grey, Dr., 36, 43-45, 51, 52. 
Gronovius, 129. 
Guise, Dr., 145. 

H. 

Halifax, Lord, 251-253, 277. 

Hall, Dr., 50. 

Hall, Mr., 171. 

Hall, Mr., of Lincoln, 90. 

Hammond, Mr., 39. 

Hampshire ministers, 203. 

Handcock, Lady, 70. 

Harding, Mr., 50. 

Hardy, Sir Charles, 233. 

Harison, George, 211, 216, 219, 222, 

224, 238, 297. 
Harpin, Dr., 238. 
Harpur, Mr., Robert, 266, 267. 
Hart, Mr. John, 14, 18, 20. 
Han-ard College, 2, 114, 144, 233. 
Havens, Mr., 166. 
Hay, Mr., 35, 41. 
Haywood, Dr., 48. 
Hebrew Manuscripts, 308. 
Hemingway, Mr., 7. 
Hendley, Mr., 31. 
Herring, Bishop, 86. 
Hiffgot, Mr., 52. 
HiiTl. Mr., 32. 
Hillsborough, Lord, 338. 
Hoadly, Bishop, 13, 61. 
Hobart, John Henry, Bishop of New 

York, 353. 
Hobart, Noah, 203, 207, 209, 274. 
Hobbes, 207. 
Hodges, Dr., 117. 
Holloway, Mr., 230. 
Honyman, Rev. James, 29, 54, 67, 101, 

165, 169, 170. 
Hooker's "Ecclesiastical Polity," 13. 
Hooper, Mr., 51. 
Home, George, Bishop of Norwich, 128, 

228, 231, 267, 305, 329; letter to 

Johnson, 290. 
Horsmanden, Daniel, 289 ; letter to 

Johnson, 288. 
Hubbard, Rev. Bela, 296. 
Hughes, Mr., 26. 
Humphrey, Mr., 31 ; Humphrey, Mrs., 

52. 
Hurd, Jabez, 318. 
Hutchinson, John, 127, 128, 131, 186, 

230, 231, 234, 267, 268, 305, 332. 
Hutchinsonians, 231, 305. 
Hyberton, Dr., 222. 



I. 



Ibbotson, Dr., 28, 36, 

Independents or Congregationalists, 

16, 87, 273, 298. 
Indian Charity School, 308, 310. 
Inglis, Dr. Charles, 100, 296,351. 
" Instauratio Magna," 6. 
" Inventions of Men in the Worship 

of God," 12. 
Irish Parliament, 342. 



Jackson, Mr., 219. 

James, Mr., 4. 

James, Mr., 70. 

Jarvis, Rev. Abraham, Bishop of Con- 
necticut, 296. 

Jay, Dr. James, agent for soliciting 
subscriptions, 269-271, 290. 

Jebb, Mr., 48. 

Jenkins, Dr. R., 49, 50. 

Jenks, Dr., 27. 

Jenner, Edmund, 38. 

Jennings, Mr., 35. 

Johnson, Robert, emigration to Amer- 
ica, and family, 1, 2. 

Johnson, William, his son settles in 
Guilford, 2, 3. 

Johnson, Samuel, mai-riage, 2 death, 58. 

Johnson, Rev. Samuel, birth, 1 ; early 
education, 3, 4 ; graduates from col- 
lege, 5 ; philosophical studies, 5, 6 ; 
tutor at New Haven, 9, 10 ; Congre- 
gational Minister at West Haven, 1 1 ; 
doubts about his ordination, 12-15; 
declares for Episcopacy, 18, 19 ; 
reasons for his change, 20-23 ; sails 
for England, 24 ; books read at sea, 
25 ; arrival and reception, 25 ; ex- 
tracts from private Journal, 26-37 ; 
baptism, 34 ; confirmation and 
ordination, 36, 37 ; more extracts 
from Journal, 39-53 ; sorrow for the 
death of Brown, 41 ; visit to Oxford 
46-48 ; visit to Cambridge, 49, 50 ; 
taking leave of friends and farewell 
to England, 53, 54 ; arrival at Strat- 
ford, 54 ; letter to the Bishop of 
London, 56 ; marriage, 57 ; death of 
pai'ents, 58, 59 ; intimacy with Gov- 
ernor Burnet, 60 ; letter to. 62, 63 ; 
studies of Chinstian evidence, 64 ; 
religious controversy, 88-91 ; visits 
to Berkeley, 67, 70, 75, 77 ; interests 
Berkeley in Yale College, 77-81 ; 
convert to his Philosophy, 82 ; foreign 
correspondence, 92, 341, 348; educa- 



INDEX. 



377 



tion of sons, 144 ; letters to J. Scul- 
lard, 66, 67 ; letters to J. Berriman, 
85, 96-98, 127, 128 ; letters to 
Bishop of London, 88, 94, 297-299 ; 
letters to- Bishop Berkeley, 99-103, 
105, 106, 170-173 ; letters to George 
Berkeley, 229-232, 328, 329, 347, 
348; letters to Mr. Gold, 108-111; 
letter to Rev. Roger Price, 113-115 ; 
letter to Mills, 122 ; letter to Colraan, 
125, 126; letters to C. Golden, 133- 
140, 142, 143, 184-188; letters to 
elder son, 148-153, 197-199, 225- 
228, 233, 234, 254, 255, 262, 263, 
315, 316; letter to son's wife, 236; 
letter to Dr. Franklin, 167, 168; 
letters to George Home, 267, 268, 
290-292 ; letter ' to Rev. Richard 
Peters, 161 ; letters to President 
Clap, 201-209; letters to Arch- 
bishop Seeker, 243, 244, 269, 270, 
294 - 297 ; correspondence with 
Seeker, 241, 249, 251-254, 256; 
named for Commissary, 116, 117; 
Doctor of Divinity, 117, 118 ; build- 
ing churches, 119, 120; system of 
morality, 123, 169 ; controversy with 
Dickinson, 120-122; defense of 
Berkeley's Philosophy, 131, 132; 
called to College in Philadelphia, 
153, 157; invited to Newport, 165; 
" Elementa Philosophica," 169, 172 ; 
cost of printing, 179; President of 
King's College, 190, 191 ; controversy 
among the Trustees, 192, 197 ; resigns 
mission at Stratford, 209 ; removes 
to New York, 210; retires to West- 
chester, 233, 235, 237 ; illness of wife, 
235, 236 ; death, 240 ; return to New 
York, 239 ; small-pox again in the 
city, 247, 255 ; writes to Rev. East 
Apthorp, 250, 251 ; discourse on 
Prayer, and letter to friend, 257-261 ; 
dislike of skeptical writers, 264 ; 
second marriage, 265 ; aid for Col- 
lege, solicited in England, 266, 267; 
defense of the Church, 272, 274; 
determines to resign, 274, 275 ; small- 
pox in New York and prepares to 
retire to Stratford, 286; death of his 
wife, 287 ; letter to Trustees, 289 ; 
directs studies of candidates, 292 ; 
interest in the Indians, 308-310; 
correspondence with Chandler, 312- 
315 ; Hebrew Grammar, and corre- 
spondence about, 306, 307, 333 ; efforts 
in favor ot American Episcopate, 324- 
327, 341 ; death, 349, 350 ; burial, 
350 ; sermons on, 350, 351 ; autobi- 



ography, 352, 354 ; character, 354- 
357. 

Johnson, Wm. Samuel, birth 65 ; edu- 
cation, 113, 117, 144; letters to his 
father, 145-147, 192-194, 274, 275, 
305, 311, 312, 316-323, 329-331, 
338-340 ; inoculated for small-pox, 
293 ; member of first Colonial Con- 
gress, 299 ; author of remonstrance 
to the King, 300 ; special agent, 310 ; 
marriage of daughter, 334 ; letter to 
his wife, 336 ; prolonged absence in 
England, 335-338 ; mentions of, 197, 
199, 225-227, 273 ; sails for America, 
343 ; arrival at Stratford, 344 ; letter 
to Bishop Lowth, 349, 350. 

Johnson, Rev. Wm., birth, 143 ; educa- 
tion, 143, 144; mentions of, 205, 
226, 238 ; letters to his father, 209, 
214, 217; tutor in King's College, 
210; arrival in England, 212; ordi- 
nation, 217; letter to his brother, 
218-220; death, 220; burial, 224. 

Johnson, Sir William, 303, 310, 314. 

Johnson, Dr., monument to in Cherry 
Burton Church, 319. 

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 330 ; letter to 
Wra. Samuel Johnson, and his an- 
swer, 361-365. 

Jones, Dr., 30, 45. 

Jones, John, 34, 53. 

Jones, William, of Nayland, 128, 290, 
291,. 305. 

Journal of Convention, Virginia, 368, 
369. 

K. 

Kay, Mr., 78. 

Kennett, Dr., 32. 

Kennicott, Dr., 308. 

King, Archbishop, 12. 

King's College, chartered, 195 ; contro- 
versy about, 196, 197, 199 ; first com- 
mencement, 241 ; second, 243 ; fourth, 
265 ; gifts to, 244 ; Governors of 
256 ; need of funds, 267 ; collections 
for in England, 269-271 ; mentions 
of, 247, 2.53, 290, 291, 345. 

King, Dr., master of the Chapter House, 
30, 52, 53. 

King, Sir Peter, 30. 

Kinnersley, Mr., 222. 

Kneehmd, Rev. Ebenezer, 333, 334, 367. 

Knight, Rev. Dr., 34, 51. 



L. 



Laney, Dr., 49, 50. 
Law, 63. 



378 



INDEX. 



Lawson, Mr., 50. 

Learning, Rev. Jeremiah, 350. 

Leland, 357. 

Leslie, 357. 

" Letter from Aristocles to Authades," 

120, 121. 
Leybourn, Mr. R., 36. 
Lisle, Dr., 96. 
Lispenard, Leonard, 197. 
Lithered, Captain Thomas, 23. 
Liturgy of the Church of England, 13, 

189, 198, 205, 262. 
Livingston, Wm., 100, 191, 195-197. 
Locke, John, 5, 74, 131, 230. 
"London Chronicle," 315. 
" London Magazine," 251, 252. 
Lords of the Council, 336. 
Lovel, Dr., 28, 29, 52. 
Low, Mr., 37. 

Lowth, Bishop, 326, 331, 3-19. 
Lucas, Mr., 50. 
Lupton, Dr., 52. 
Lutheran Ministers, 197. 
Lyttleton, Lord, 319. 

M. 

Mackintosh, Colonel, 23. 

Manning, Mr., 43. 

Mansfield, Lord, 340. 

Markham, Dr., 174. 

Marlborough, Duke of, 47. 

Marshall, Rev. John R., 345. 

Marshall, Dr. Nathaniel, 36, 40, 43, 45, 

52. 
Martin, Mr., 166. 
Massey, Mr., 37, 39, 40. 
Maverick, Mrs. George, 252. 
Mayhew, Dr. Jonathan, 275, 276, 278, 

280, 281, 285,294,295. 
McSparran, Dr. James, 95, 213, 219. 
Middlesex Election, 339. 
Middleton, Dr., 49, 50. 
Middleton, Mr., 43. 
Mills, Mr. Jedediah, 122. 
Missionaries, 245, 254. 
Mohegan Cause, 310, 311, 336, 343. 
Moore, Sir T., 368. 
Morley, Mr., 224. 
Morris, Rev. Theophilus, 112-116. 
Morton, Dr., 291. 
Moseley, Mr., 46. 
Moss, Dr., 42, 43, 45, 312. 
Moss, Mr., 7. 
Murray, Mr. Joseph, 266. 



N. 



Negus, Mr., 45. 
Newbury, Walter 45. 



Newcastle, Duke of, 253. 

Newton, Bishop, 290. 

Newton, Sir Isaac, 5. 

Newtonian Philosophy, 128, 332. 

NichoUs, Dr., 214-217, 228. 

Nichols, Dr., 222. 

Nicholson, Jeremiah, 34. 

Nicoll, Benjamin, Esq., 57. 

NicoU, Benjamin, Jr., 194, 195, 198, 

248. 
Nightingale, Mrs. Dorothy, 34, 35. 
"Noetica," 168, 169, 180, 182. 
North, Bishop, 344, 348. 
North, Lord, 339. 
Norton, Mr.,' 52. 
Nottingham, Earl of, 23. 
Noyes, Joseph, 5, 7, 9. 



0. 



Oglethorpe, Mr., 90. 

Oldsworth, Mr., 49. 

Oliver, Mr., 52, 53. 

Orem, Mr., 23. 

Osbaldistone, Dr., Bishop of Carlble, 

218. 
Otis, James, 300. 
Owen, Dr., 47. 
" Oxonia Illustrata," 209. 



P. 



Paine, Thomas, 264. 

Painting, Dr., 46. 

Parker, Mr. Samuel, 48. 

Parkhurst, Rev. John, 306, 318, 332. 

Parsons, Sir John, 51. 

Patrick's "Devotions," 13. 

Patten, Rev. Dr., 231, 268, 290, 291. 

Pearce, Mr., 49. 

Pearson, John, 13, 63. 

Peters, Rev. Richard, 160, 162, 165, 

166, 168,173. 
Phillips, Mr., 51. 
Pierson, John, 83. 
Pigot, Rev. George, 15, 16 ; removal to 

Providence, 54. 
Pilgrim, Mr., 50. 
Pitt, Mr., 251-253. 
Pollen, Rev. Mr., 176. 
Pope, 68, 214. 
Popery, 89. 

Porteus, Dr., 311, 312. 
Potter, Dr. John, Bishop of Oxford, 33, 

46,47, 296. 
Presbyterians, 298, 301. 
Presbyterian Divines, 88, 120, 197. 
Presbyterian Ordination, 14, 15. 
Price, Mr., 37. 



INDEX. 



379 



Price, Rev. Roger, 112, 113, 116, 281, 

294. 
Primitive Church, 14. 
"Piinciples of Action in Matter," 129, 

181. 
" Principles of Human Knowledge," 67, 

72. 
Prior, Thomas, 70, 76. 
Protest, 192-194, 196. 
Punderson, Rev. E., 200, 205, 207. 



Q. 



Queen Anne, 68, 276. 

R. 

Rawden, Mr., 42-44. 

Rawlins, Mr., 29, 35. 

Revolutionary War, 241. 

Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 361. 

Rice, Mr., 42. 

Richards, Mr., 197. 

Robinson, Dr. John, Bishop of London, 

29, 34, 35, 37. 
Roderick, Dr., 44. 
Ruggles, Captain, 51. 
Ruggles, Mr., 300. 
Rundle, Dr., 84-86. 
Ryan, Mr., 48. 



Sabellianism, 62. 

Sage, David, 2. 

Salmon, Mr., 53. 

Salmon, Mr., of Brazenose, 90. 

Saltonstall, Governor, 8, 9, 19, 20. 

Sanderson, Mr., blind professor, 50. 

Sanford, Mr., 28, 29. 

Scate, Mr., 44. 

Scotch Presbyterians, 304. 

Scott, John, " Christian Life" of, 12. 

Scripture Mysteries, 237. 

Scripture Philosophy, 332. 

ScuUard, Mr. J., 33, 34, 39, 40, 43-45, 
56, 85 ; letter of, 65, 66. 

Seabury, Mr. Samuel, Jr., 199, 314; 
Bishop of Connecticut, 348, 349. 

Seagrave, Mr., 27. 

Seeker, Thomas, Bishop of Oxford, 96, 
117, 173 ; Archbishop of Canterbury, 
79, 241, 243, 245, 246, 249, 251, 258, 
269, 272, 285, 293, 309-312, 316, 321, 
322, 328, 329 ; letters to Johnson, 
276-278, 280-283, 302-304. 

Sewall, Stephen, 332, 333. 

Sharpe, 13. 

Shelburne, Earl of, 316. 



Sherlock, 13, 52, 63. 

Sherlock, Dr., Dean of Chichester, 39. 

Sherlock, Bishop, 86, 96, 211, 217, 341. 

Shippen, Dr., 46, 47. 

Shute, Governor, 35. 

Skirret, Dr., 51. 

Smibert, Mr., 70. 

Smith, Mr., 29, 47. 

Smith, Dr., 41. 

Smith, Joseph, 4. 

Smith, Samuel, 9. 

Smith, Rev. Dr. Wm., 176, 178, 270, 
282. 

Smith, Mr. Bar., 46, 47. 

Smollett, 263, 264. 

Snape, Dr., 43, 49, 51, 63. 

Societies incorporated, 276 ; Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel, 15, 
16, 23, 29, 51, 87, 92, 237, 254, 269, 
275, 278, 281, 284, 296, 307, 309, 311. 

Socinianism, 62, 357. 

South, 13. 

Spinozism, 143. 

Stamp Act, 299, 300. 

Standard, Mr., 211, 213. 

Stanhope, Dean, 26, 39. 

Stebbing, Dr., 84, 86. 

Steele, 68. 

Stiles, President, 5, 79, 199. 

Stinton, Dr., 311. 

Stockton, Mr., 316 

Stockwell, Mr., 46. 

Stuyvesant, Mr., 172. 

Swift, Dean, 68. 

Symson, Mr., 50. 

Synod of Presbyterians, 301, 316. 

" System of Morality," 123, 136, 169. 



Talbot, Bishop of Durham, 84. 

Talbot, Mrs., 312. 

Tar Water, 174. 

Temple, Mr., 343. 

Terrick, Dr. Richard, Bishop of Lon- 
don, 282, 297, 341 ; letter to Johnson, 
345, 346. 

Thomlinson, Captain, 176. 

Tillotson, 231. 

Tindall, Matthew, 64, 84. 

Trapp, Mr., 27. 

Treadwell, Mr., 241, 247-249, 268. 

Trinity, doctrine of, 60, 63, 128, 291. 

Tritheism, 62. 

Trognair, Mr., 46. 

Trotter, Mr., 49. 

Truby, Mr., 42, 45, 52. 

Tryon, Mr., Treasurer, 39, 43. 



380 



INDEX. 



Tucker, Dr., 285. 

Tyler, Rev. John, 321, 334. 

U. 

Underhill, Lord, 283, 
University of Bermuda, 68. 
University of Cambridge, 232, 269. 
University of Dublin, 68. 
University of Edinburgh, 127, 270. 
University of Glasgow, 266. 
University of Oxford, 46, 90,117, 118, 

172, 219, 221,269, 329. 
Usher, Rev. Mr., 32, 34, 114. 
Utrecht, treaty of, 69. 

V. 

Vanhormigh, Miss, 68. 

Vaughan, Mr., 31, 42. 

Vernon, Mr., 53. 

Vestry of Trinity Church, N. Y., 198, 

211. 
Vicarage of Croyden, 285. 
Vincent, Mr., 31. 
Vindication of God's sovereign free 

grace, 121. 
Viner, 202, 204. 

W. 

Waddington, Dr., 45 ; Bishop of Chi- 
chester, 56. 

WagstafF, Mr., 48. 

Wait, Mr., 31,42. 

Wake, Dr. W., Archbishop of Canter- 
buiy, 13, 28, 35, 37, 39, 53, 86. 

Walker, Dr., 36, 95. 

Wall on Infant Baptism, 13. 

Wallgrave, or Waldgrave, Earl of, 37. 

Walpole, Sir Robert, 326. 

Warren, Dr., 49, 50, 53. 

Warton, Mr., 46. 

Waterland, Dr., 48, 63. 

Waterman, Mr., 44. 

Watkins, Rev. Mr., 129. 

Wats, Mr., 33, 40. 

Watson, Dr., 32 ; Bishop, 264. 

Watts, Mr., 196, 287. 

Waugh, Dr., Dean of Gloucester, 32, 40, 
86. 

Webster, Mr., 45. 

Welles, Mr. Noah, 274. 

Welton, Dr., Non-juring Bishop, 55. 

Wesley, Mr. Charles, 90. 

Wesley, Mr. John, 90. 

Wetherell, Dr., head of University Col- 
lege, 305, 329. 



Wetmore, James, 14, 18, 28, 113, 192, 
193, 237 ; baptism, 52 ; ordination, 53. 

Wheatly, Mr. Charles, 36, 42, 43, 45, 
48, 51, 53, 56. 

Wheelock, Rev. Eleazar, 303, 308, 310. 

Wheelwright, Mrs., 284. 

Whiston, 23, 34, 61. 

Whitby, 13. 

White, Rev. Wm., Bishop of Penn, 361 . 

Whitefield, Rev. George, 103, 105-107, 
110, 119, 120, 122, 245. 

Whiting, John, 80. 

Whittelsey, Samuel, 14, 18, 20; son of, 
89. 

Wickliffe, John, 45. 

Wightman, Paul, 81. 

Wilcox, Dr. John, Bishop of Glouces- 
ter, .33. 

Wilkins, Dr., 26. 

Williams, Elisha, Rector of Yale Col- 
lege, 79, 81, 99, 102, 103, 202. 

Williams, Peere, 219. 

Willis, Dr., Bishop of Sarum, 29. 

Willoughby, Lord, 281. 

Wilson, Rev. Mr., 301. 

Wilson, Thomas, Bishop of Sodor and 
Man, 44, 51-53. 

Winslow, Rev. Edward, 209, 219, 273, 
274, 278, 280, 292, 293. 

Winthrop, Mr. John, 167, 332. 

Wittar, Mr., 231. 

Wollaston, 124. 

" Wollebius," 5. 

Wood, Mr., 31, 43. 

Wood bridge, Mr. Dudley, 48. 

Woodbridge, Timothy, 8. 

Woodhull, Margai-et, 57. 

Woodward, Dr., 32, 43. 

Woolston, Thomas, 64. 

Wren, Sir Christopher, 39 ; funeral, 33. 

Wyat, Mr., 46. 

Y. 

Yale College, fixed at New Haven, and 
first building, 9 ; pai'ty at Wethers- 
field, 8-10; Trustees, 18 ; gifts to, 79, 
80 ; debate in College library, 19-23 ; 
Catalogue of books, 123 ; Chaple, 200, 
257; regulations for worship, 199, 
212, 216; graduates, 83, 144, 267, 
296; mentions of, 14, 113, 117, 171, 
249. 

Yale, David, 33, 53. 

Yale, Elihu, 10, 202. 

York, Archbishop of, 282, 295. 

York, Duke of, 320. 

Younger, Dean, 40, 52. 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 



History of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, from 
1685 to 1865. 

Two volumes, Svo, $6.00. 



OLT'' 



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